tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-74839549741463171742017-07-29T10:32:23.267+01:00Identity crisis? No, I'm a primary school teacher!Chris Dunnhttps://plus.google.com/107296632684438898503noreply@blogger.comBlogger40125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7483954974146317174.post-41589848046280999862016-09-20T19:25:00.001+01:002016-10-08T10:46:03.016+01:00Keeping up to date can be frustrating ...<div class="p1"><span class="s1">Keeping up with the latest education news has become increasingly frustrating!</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-s48PiIJmNj0/V-F7pKLuoCI/AAAAAAAAA9A/qxLX9KwGO1gOtm37CWBJ5isF8rOPwxEcQCLcB/s1600/images.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-s48PiIJmNj0/V-F7pKLuoCI/AAAAAAAAA9A/qxLX9KwGO1gOtm37CWBJ5isF8rOPwxEcQCLcB/s320/images.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="p1"><br /></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1">The national press does a great job of reporting on the issues that interest the wider community but doesn’t give you the detail you need as a working teacher or lecturer, particularly if you manage a subject, year group, department or more.</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><br /></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1">For that, you need to delve into the websites of the numerous government departments, associations, independent bodies and unions etc.</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KWF99xWp5b0/V-F8N_zY1fI/AAAAAAAAA9E/ihPO7KgWIwY4JKF61Qo8XltRqg7pEaMZACLcB/s1600/images-2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="97" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KWF99xWp5b0/V-F8N_zY1fI/AAAAAAAAA9E/ihPO7KgWIwY4JKF61Qo8XltRqg7pEaMZACLcB/s320/images-2.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="p1"><br /></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1">As a primary school assessment leader I found myself monitoring up to 4 news feeds each from the DfE, STA, Ofsted, Ofqual and the NAHT to try and keep abreast of developments and advice on assessment without levels. I collated all these feeds into an RSS reader, which was the starting point for The Edgazette.</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><br /></span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-I2gkWd1uFro/V-F8k9nVrRI/AAAAAAAAA9M/UuzGA4ewwXEKj_fmzdFo559I2IdqOde1ACLcB/s1600/Edgazette%2Bround%2Blogo%2Bon%2Bblack%2Bfor%2Btwitter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-I2gkWd1uFro/V-F8k9nVrRI/AAAAAAAAA9M/UuzGA4ewwXEKj_fmzdFo559I2IdqOde1ACLcB/s200/Edgazette%2Bround%2Blogo%2Bon%2Bblack%2Bfor%2Btwitter.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Edgazette | The Eye on Education</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="p1">Joining the thriving education community on Twitter is a great way of finding out what’s going on, as many professionals are also monitoring news feeds and sharing their views. However due to the nature of Twitter, if you’re not logged in at the right time there’s a good chance you’ll miss something. How many of us have become addicted to social media!?</div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><br /></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1">I decided to build a website to display all the quality sources of education news I could find, and as I had some experience of building websites I though it would take a couple of weeks. It actually took nine months of my spare time to build the site, becoming a labour of love and an obsession. A positive side effect has been the cure of my social media addiction!</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><br /></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1">I was astonished to discover how many government departments, authorities, organisations and unions etc are involved in UK education from nursery all the way through to higher education. At the time of writing the count has reached 122. I’ve also added feeds from a number of high quality blogs to embellish the picture, commenting and advising on the latest developments in education. I find their interpretations and comments far more detailed, accurate and helpful than the often political leanings found in the national press. There’s also a dose of Twitter in the mix for those who want right up to the minute news (I’ve seen the DfE tweet hourly on a busy announcement day to clarify points and add detail).</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-L3L5y3i4ND0/V-F-4-xCLmI/AAAAAAAAA9Y/RJHYezy27Lkee40w7P2lAd1n-xnImiaDwCLcB/s1600/twitter-ipo_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-L3L5y3i4ND0/V-F-4-xCLmI/AAAAAAAAA9Y/RJHYezy27Lkee40w7P2lAd1n-xnImiaDwCLcB/s320/twitter-ipo_.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="p1"><br /></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1">The Edgazette displays an excerpt from each article along with a direct link to the source document. This respects the originators copyright and ensures that traffic is not taken away from their website. In fact I very much hope that this site will help to grow their readership.</span></div><div class="p1"><br /></div><div class="p1">Whilst developing The Edgazette I came to realise how valuable it is to read news from the original source. It helps me to filter out the third party interests, misinterpretations and the mistakes that all too often confuse the issue. Hence The Edgazette is all about presenting news direct from source, alongside comment and analysis from professional organisations, unions and expert bloggers etc. My partner (also a teacher) has kindly dubbed it ‘The Eye on Education’.</div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><br /></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1">Please take a look ...&nbsp;<a href="http://edgazette.co.uk/">http://edgazette.co.uk</a></span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://edgazette.co.uk/" imageanchor="1"><img alt="The Edgazette" border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wqzOtNsRUXQ/V_i93BghFXI/AAAAAAAAA-Q/5yTCTC9sSWY5jQMT0PP5HUJ3VloU9tNJACLcB/s1600/Edg%2BAd.gif" title="The Edgazette" style="padding: 0px;"/></a></div></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><br /></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><br /></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><br /></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</script></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/boHMf/~4/WOXSvhfXzO8" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Chris Dunnhttps://plus.google.com/107296632684438898503noreply@blogger.com0http://mr-shrek.blogspot.com/2016/09/keeping-up-with-latest-education-news.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7483954974146317174.post-82175264665258082732015-06-28T16:56:00.003+01:002016-10-08T10:48:39.087+01:00The Numicon counting wheelDemonstrating the counting wheel in EYFS ...<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WLvso4-OS2s" width="560"></iframe><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://mr-shrek.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/counting-to-100-and-understanding-place.html" target="_blank">Click here</a>&nbsp;to view my blogpost explaining the counting wheel in detail.<br /><br /><a href="http://mr-shrek.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/counting-guide-for-eyfsks1.html" target="_blank">Click here</a>&nbsp;for a free downloadable guide to counting in EYFS/KS1 (including resources).<br /><br /><br /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://edgazette.co.uk/" imageanchor="1"><img alt="The Edgazette" border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wqzOtNsRUXQ/V_i93BghFXI/AAAAAAAAA-Q/5yTCTC9sSWY5jQMT0PP5HUJ3VloU9tNJACLcB/s1600/Edg%2BAd.gif" style="padding: 0px;" title="The Edgazette" /></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</script></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/boHMf/~4/FLBVEljTgaA" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Chris Dunnhttps://plus.google.com/107296632684438898503noreply@blogger.com0http://mr-shrek.blogspot.com/2015/06/academies-the-bare-facts.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7483954974146317174.post-63703182073298001142015-05-05T17:57:00.001+01:002016-10-08T10:49:10.593+01:00No full stops? ... call the police!Getting children to use full stops in their writing is something that pretty much every teacher struggles with. Using them correctly seems to be an educational utopia!<br /><div><br /></div><div>I've never heard, or managed to come up with, a sensible 'child friendly' explanation of how to use them.&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div><i>"Check that you've used full stops at the end of your sentences!" </i>We all say.</div><div><br /></div><div>I don't have any magic answer or explanation, but things have definitely improved since I involved the Police. Allow me to introduce the 3 officers that patrol our Year 1 classrooms ...<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xI_wE-DgHRA/VUj2CGBsN5I/AAAAAAAAAuE/N1bYZogfWt0/s1600/Helmets%2Bon%2Btable.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="152" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xI_wE-DgHRA/VUj2CGBsN5I/AAAAAAAAAuE/N1bYZogfWt0/s1600/Helmets%2Bon%2Btable.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dV9LUPDyFaw/VT_Y3sAbMyI/AAAAAAAAAts/IysqOl9nZIA/s1600/3%2BPC's.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dV9LUPDyFaw/VT_Y3sAbMyI/AAAAAAAAAts/IysqOl9nZIA/s1600/3%2BPC's.png" width="158" /></a></div><br />They reside on the classroom wall to reinforce the link with the children's targets ...</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fTZ7gX6X1fU/VT_WiY-wtSI/AAAAAAAAAtg/SVXDkNbJZmI/s1600/Helmets.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fTZ7gX6X1fU/VT_WiY-wtSI/AAAAAAAAAtg/SVXDkNbJZmI/s1600/Helmets.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /></div><div>The majority of children really enjoy wearing a helmet and patrolling round the classroom looking for evidence in everyone's writing book. The first thing this did was raise the profile and importance of these targets. We then gave the officers highlighter pens, which when used sensibly, made the process more interactive.</div><div><br /></div><div>Next came the evidence sheets ...</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iNEf490HEHk/VTzNDawf_rI/AAAAAAAAAso/1UziljIcYEY/s1600/selfassessforbooks.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="80" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iNEf490HEHk/VTzNDawf_rI/AAAAAAAAAso/1UziljIcYEY/s1600/selfassessforbooks.png" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>These combine the new officers with the well established traffic light system for self and peer assessment. Here are two examples of them in use (the children use green pen for making improvements) ...&nbsp;</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_JpeILhzKxg/VTzQnLHdzMI/AAAAAAAAAs8/8HjwJRN_uWs/s1600/Example%2BBook1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_JpeILhzKxg/VTzQnLHdzMI/AAAAAAAAAs8/8HjwJRN_uWs/s1600/Example%2BBook1.jpg" width="231" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Child A - Autumn Term</td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2v6mcze33a4/VTzQnN469PI/AAAAAAAAAs4/YQ7ovcuXx40/s1600/Example%2BBook2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2v6mcze33a4/VTzQnN469PI/AAAAAAAAAs4/YQ7ovcuXx40/s1600/Example%2BBook2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Child B - Autumn Term</td></tr></tbody></table><div>Once this process was established, we took the concept and applied it to success criteria. The children soon took ownership, playing their part in creating a list for a given writing task. Highlighter pens are very popular and really support the children in identifying improvements ...</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OmPMB21LWZk/VTzQm_PzIgI/AAAAAAAAAs0/txaWQnngGJc/s1600/Example%2BBook1a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OmPMB21LWZk/VTzQm_PzIgI/AAAAAAAAAs0/txaWQnngGJc/s1600/Example%2BBook1a.jpg" width="218" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Child A - Spring Term</td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vucaS50KX4E/VTzQoDvO1FI/AAAAAAAAAtM/niC6a04Iiq0/s1600/Example%2BBook2b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vucaS50KX4E/VTzQoDvO1FI/AAAAAAAAAtM/niC6a04Iiq0/s1600/Example%2BBook2b.jpg" width="225" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Child B - Spring Term</td></tr></tbody></table><div>The Police don't patrol on a regular basis anymore. Crime has reduced significantly. A quick response team remains on call-out though, for those occasional lessons when the introduction of a new skill results in an inexplicable absence of full stops!</div><div><br /></div><div>The resources we developed are available here ... <a href="http://evokation.co.uk/no-full-stops-call-the-police/" target="_blank">free download</a><br /><br />Please take a look at my new project ...&nbsp;<a href="http://edgazette.co.uk/" target="_blank">Edgazette | The Eye on Education</a><br /><br /><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://edgazette.co.uk/" imageanchor="1"><img alt="The Edgazette" border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wqzOtNsRUXQ/V_i93BghFXI/AAAAAAAAA-Q/5yTCTC9sSWY5jQMT0PP5HUJ3VloU9tNJACLcB/s1600/Edg%2BAd.gif" style="padding: 0px;" title="The Edgazette" /></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</script></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/boHMf/~4/PgZmWPgC9ss" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Chris Dunnhttps://plus.google.com/107296632684438898503noreply@blogger.com0http://mr-shrek.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-full-stop-police.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7483954974146317174.post-16091013158995631472015-04-16T20:21:00.003+01:002016-10-08T10:49:38.225+01:00Assessment without levels ... a successful trial!I didn't go out of my way to start an 'assessment without levels' trial. It just seemed to be the only sensible way forward.<br /><br />My teaching career started in Year 5, but moving to Year 1 after a spell in EYFS, I couldn't face going back to the world of APP. It made no sense in light of the new curriculum and the upcoming demise of levels.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ts2NL8CoTkA/VSk0-zGjbII/AAAAAAAAAqk/uwQfisIQxIQ/s1600/No%2BLevels.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="79" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ts2NL8CoTkA/VSk0-zGjbII/AAAAAAAAAqk/uwQfisIQxIQ/s1600/No%2BLevels.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br />I managed to gain agreement to move straight into assessment without levels for the 3 classes in my year group. It was officially a trial, but I never saw it that way. There wasn't really anything to go back to, so we were more of an advance party moving ahead of the main field. <br /><br />If there is such a thing as 'being in the right place at the right time', then this must have been it for me. Having recently taken on board the revised early years framework, the parallels with assessment without levels were uncanny ...&nbsp; <br /><br /><br /><h3>Next Step 'Trees'</h3><br />I blogged last year about '<a href="http://mr-shrek.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/next-steps-in-eyfs.html" target="_blank">Next steps in EYFS not needing to be a cottage industry</a>' and introduced the simple yet effective 'next step trees' that I had created. They paint a clear picture of where children are in their learning journey and are easily shared with parents/carers. Here's an example ...<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TpXUX8FaoPg/VAsUE1VAc0I/AAAAAAAAAnw/ErdzqLVTL_Q/s1600/Reading.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TpXUX8FaoPg/VAsUE1VAc0I/AAAAAAAAAnw/ErdzqLVTL_Q/s1600/Reading.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />I'm a big fan of the way core subjects have been revised in the new curriculum (Here's my blog post on <a href="http://mr-shrek.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/new-primary-maths-curriculum-2014-epic.html" target="_blank">maths</a>). The objectives are now mostly clear and succinct, with some even written in child friendly language! It seemed an obvious first step to create some 'next step trees' for Year 1. Our classes are named after sea creatures so the tree became seaweed, but the concept is just the same. I added the Early Learning Goals (ELG's) from EYFS at the bottom, and chose a few 'early start' objectives from Year 2 to go at the top. Here's the one I created for maths ...<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mCj2aQLMG6Y/VSk-d_RIYLI/AAAAAAAAAq0/L3n2FDBbEH4/s1600/Slide1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mCj2aQLMG6Y/VSk-d_RIYLI/AAAAAAAAAq0/L3n2FDBbEH4/s1600/Slide1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />We decided to focus on number, splitting some objectives up for the sake of progression, but it would be easy enough to add some key objectives for geometry and statistics etc. I also created sheets for reading and writing, all of which where laminated and placed inside the front cover of the children's work books. The children took to them instantly, having stickers added for the ELG's they had already achieved, and then for the easier Year 1 objectives.<br /><br />You may be thinking there are too many targets for the children to focus on, and those with experience will know that many Year 1 children aren't capable of reading them at the beginning of the year. However, some children started counting the stickers they had got. Then they counted the ones they hadn't got. Then it caught on ...<br /><br /><i>"I've got 3 stickers." &nbsp;</i>Good.<br /><i><br /></i><i>"I've got 4!" &nbsp;</i>Well done!<br /><i><br /></i><i>"I've got 6 out of 19, and I only need 12 more to be the winner." &nbsp;</i>Impressive maths skills ... actually you need 13 more so you might not be the winner yet.<br /><br />The children grasped the size of their learning challenge for the year and were positive about the progress they were already making.<br /><br />The target trees were central to discussions at our first parent's evening of the year, and feedback was very positive. Some parents occassionally come in and look at the trees when they drop their child off in the morning, checking how they're doing and picking up next steps. It really has led to a higher level of effective home support.<br /><br /><br /><h3>DfE Draft Performance Descriptors</h3><br />Next came the very timely arrival of the DfE's Draft Performance Descriptors ...<br /><br />Up until now we'd been using similar terminology to EYFS in terms of how a child was progressing, &nbsp;e.g. 'working towards, at, or exceeding age expectations'. The DfE now gave us some new words to play with.<br /><br />Your daughter is&nbsp;<i>"Working at National Standard" </i>sounds very official indeed.<br /><br />Your son has achieved <i>"Mastery" </i>sounds positively, well, masterful!<br /><br />The document said we weren't allowed to use the new words yet, and in any case they are only supposed to apply to the end of each key stage (which apparently was also the case with levels!) We're supposed to come up with our own ideas on how to assess in between. So this is a big thing, a turning point. There are two ways of looking at it ...<br /><br /><i>1/. Really!? The DfE aren't going to tell us what to do, and we're banned from using their idea. Here we go again, thrown into chaos.</i><br /><i><br /></i><i>2/. Interesting ... &nbsp;so we're being encouraged to use our own ideas, and they've told Ofsted that they'll have to use whatever we give them. The DfE even say they trust our professional judgement.</i><br /><span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span><span style="text-align: center;">Needless to say I chose the second way of thinking. I've long been frustrated by how downtrodden we let ourselves feel as a profession, and the relatively low status we hold in society. The door is now open ...</span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zDMOiNxqbFU/VSlqc_Hq83I/AAAAAAAAArE/KoffQFnpirc/s1600/door%2Bopen.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zDMOiNxqbFU/VSlqc_Hq83I/AAAAAAAAArE/KoffQFnpirc/s1600/door%2Bopen.png" width="147" /></a></div><br />Can you imagine a GP filling in an 'APP' style sheet to arrive at a patient assessment? Actually, they'd be told to fill just one sheet in for each group of similar patients and give them the same diagnosis. Madness! With proper checks in place we trust their professional judgment.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-D0xoKCFc5s8/VSlsadWONpI/AAAAAAAAArQ/cqZfDezgBhE/s1600/doctor.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-D0xoKCFc5s8/VSlsadWONpI/AAAAAAAAArQ/cqZfDezgBhE/s1600/doctor.png" title="" width="188" /></a></div>Admittedly GP's pay may have something to do with our relatively low professional status, but surely we're just as trustworthy? The DfE have made a point of saying we are.<br /><br />I see the pay issue as a 'chicken and egg' one, tied up with professional status. We need to get into an upward spiral, raising both. Thinking about it, we'll probably have to include educational standards in the equation as well.<br /><br />So let's not complain about a lack of clarity or direction. Let's take the opportunity to show how proactive and professional we really are.<br /><br />Forgive me, I may have got a little sidetracked. Back to the Levels ... sorry, I mean performance descriptors. Can we still use the word level, as in 'Mastery' level? Surely we can.<br /><br /><br /><h3>Assessing against the new curriculum</h3><br />As we moved towards the end of the first term, we got properly organised to make assessments. We used a two-prong approach ...<br /><br />1/. <i><b>Testing</b></i>. This word brings all sorts of baggage and pre-conceptions with it, but please hear me out.<br /><br />2/. <i><b>The target trees</b></i>.<br /><br /><h3><i><br /></i></h3><h3><i>Testing</i></h3><br />As a school we invested in the Abacus maths system for the new curriculum, which comes with short half termly tests to check progress. We also bought similar Rising Stars tests for reading.<br /><br />The most attractive feature of the above tests is that they are cleverly designed to check how children are progressing in each half term. They get harder, meaning that a score of 70% (or similar) in each half term is maintaining 'National Standard'. It took us a while to trust the results, but we do now and they correlate very well with the target trees.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xgUZopgt9gE/VSpr4qhH7PI/AAAAAAAAAr0/CjC--BbI0aA/s1600/boy%2Bin%2Btest.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xgUZopgt9gE/VSpr4qhH7PI/AAAAAAAAAr0/CjC--BbI0aA/s1600/boy%2Bin%2Btest.gif" width="140" /></a></div>We think of them as tests, but the children don't.<br /><br />The tests are carried out on a 1-2-1 basis in a quiet area just outside the classroom. Initially this was driven by their inability to read, but we wouldn't change a thing now that they mostly can.<br /><br />There is a test paper involved, but it's more like a coaching session. We don't ask every child to try every question. We coach them on the questions they haven't got right (without giving a mark) and look to move them on. For them it's 5-10 minutes of positive attention, showing off what they can do, and learning. They sometimes queue desperately by the door, hoping to be next!<br /><br />You end up with so much more than a simple mark at the end of each session. You know exactly who needs intervention and what that intervention needs to be. Given two children who score 95%, you can tell which one is working 'Above' and which one has truly 'Mastered' what you have taught.<br /><br />It is very time consuming though. It takes three quarters of every day for a week in each half term. Whilst the teachers are out, the children choose independent learning activities under the TA's supervision. It's not perfect, but we're all getting better at using the time effectively. It's a week we all look forward to!<br /><br />If I found myself back in Year 5 tomorrow, this is the first thing I'd put in place. I know it would make a difference.<br /><br />The children also do some independent writing during the week which we use as a basis for assessment. I have to admit we're still levelling the writing as it enables us to moderate across year groups. We do turn the levels into new assessments though, e.g a Level 1c is 'National Standard' in Autumn, but 'Working Towards' in Summer.<br /><br />Whilst I'm on the subject of moderation, it's interesting to see that the DfE will be publishing exemplification materials for the end of KS1 and KS2. Another parallel with EYFS who have been using exemplification for a while now.<br /><br /><h3><i><br /></i></h3><h3><i>Target trees</i></h3><br />These work very well to give an overview of where a child is. You can see how many and which stickers they have got, enabling you to make a 'best fit' judgement. I'm scared by the number of commercial assessment systems I see that are based on counting up the number of objectives a child has met. Not all objectives are equal! This is not professional judgement.<br /><br />The systems that tried to do this in EYFS have all but died out now. EYFS know all about avoiding 'tick boxing' and how to use their knowledge of the child to arrive at professional judgements. Teachers with recent EYFS experience will take to assessment without levels like ducks to water!<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2RoR49K7TbQ/VSps1CsdwGI/AAAAAAAAAsA/EabyOXbtX2s/s1600/duck%2Bto%2Bwater.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2RoR49K7TbQ/VSps1CsdwGI/AAAAAAAAAsA/EabyOXbtX2s/s1600/duck%2Bto%2Bwater.jpg" width="168" /></a></div>The target trees have correlated well with the test results in general, and really help us to spot those children who under or over perform in tests. They also work well for moderation because they are transparent.<br /><br />You think carefully before giving each sticker, as anyone could sit down with a child and check to see if they really can do it ... a parent, their next teacher, the deputy, even an Ofsted inspector. There was never an easy way to sit down next to a child and check if they were a 2b in maths or not! This has to be a big step forward.<br /><br /><br /><h3></h3><h3>Recording &amp; analysing new assessments</h3><br />Recording systems were few and far between at the time. We considered using a tablet based EYFS system that had been extended to cover the new curriculum for year 1, but it meant taking lots of observations and creating an online evidence base. This is fine in an EYFS environment, but when children's book work has to be marked on a daily basis the additional workload would be impossible. I refused to run a dual system and no-one was going to be persuaded to drop the books. It was time to dust off the Microsoft Excel skills!<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IFuIbKTTQOw/VSqa2t2sIJI/AAAAAAAAAsQ/uHGTYWtD_oI/s1600/man%2Bat%2Bcomputer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IFuIbKTTQOw/VSqa2t2sIJI/AAAAAAAAAsQ/uHGTYWtD_oI/s1600/man%2Bat%2Bcomputer.jpg" width="193" /></a></div>It's a big mind shift moving from 'average point score' to 'percentage of children at National Standard', but it's no different to measuring children reaching a 'good level of development' at the end of Reception.<br /><br />The ELG's are measured in three bands (emerging, expected and exceeding), but I think the DfE are right in suggesting four bands for KS1 and five for KS2. Using 'Above' and 'Mastery' will help keep focus on the most able as they rise through school.<br /><br />There is an issue with 'Below' though, as it's an awfully big bucket! The DfE have promised a code system to bridge between 'Below' and the P-scales, which will hopefully give us some guidance for next year.<br /><br />Once you have shifted your mind, the data analysis all heads towards the new floor targets for the end of Year 6. 85% of children need to be working at 'National Standard' in maths, reading and writing.<br /><br />From a statistical point of view, working with bands rather than Levels is a dream! It's easy to work out group, class and year group averages, and you can use standard deviation to measure gap closure.<br /><br />Our fledgling ideas in Excel have been taken forward into a full application. If interested, you can find out more by clicking <a href="http://evokation.co.uk/" target="_blank">here</a>.<br /><br /><br /><h3>Assessment without levels commission</h3><br />Just as we were expecting the draft performance descriptors to be confirmed ... along came the 'Assessment without levels' commission. The way it has been set up sends another signal that the DfE want the profession to be proactive.<br /><br />The DfE announcement called it a 'teacher-led commission' and to quote the School Reform Minister Nick Gibb ...<br /><br /><i>"This commission will continue the evidence-based approach to assessment that the government has already put in place, and will support primary and secondary schools with the transition to assessment without levels, identifying and sharing good practice in assessment."</i><br /><br />I admit that I got quite excited about this, and seeing that Nick Gibb is my local MP I decided to write and tell him about our trial. He liked the sound of it and is coming to see it in action in a few weeks time.<br /><i><br /></i><i>Update :&nbsp;</i><i>Nick Gibb's comments ...</i><br /><i><br /></i><i>On the target trees ... "This is exactly what it's all about, knowing&nbsp;exactly what the children can and can't do." Nick sat down with some children and was impressed that they could talk about and demonstrate the objectives that they had met.</i><br /><i><br /></i><i>On Evoke (the excel based recording and analysis application developed during&nbsp;the trial) ... "You've&nbsp;gone further than other trials I've seen and are successfully using an electronic&nbsp;system. It makes it very easy to see what's going on."</i><br /><br /><br /><h3></h3><h3>The stress of workload and change</h3><br />I like to get involved in change. Experience in previous careers has&nbsp;taught me that change in a complex system, when managed well, results in win-win situations. The trick is to make sure that all&nbsp;parameters and concerns are taken into consideration. I trawled though the recent DfE publications, press releases and speeches, to pull together the parameters that they have put on the table ... <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OUdD968EgmE/VSl4Z59xOVI/AAAAAAAAArg/N16hGxdpQa8/s1600/New%2BCriteria.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OUdD968EgmE/VSl4Z59xOVI/AAAAAAAAArg/N16hGxdpQa8/s1600/New%2BCriteria.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: small;">(<i>This slide show demonstrates how I arrived at the above criteria using the various clues that the DfE have left us ...&nbsp;</i></span><a href="http://evokation.co.uk/assessment-without-levels/" target="_blank"><i>click here</i></a>)<br /><br />I can't think of anything to add to this, and it's up to us as a profession to get the balance right. In my view, workload reduction is the biggest win we need as classroom practitioners. I refuse to allow any more duplication,&nbsp;double recording, tick boxing and the collation&nbsp;of evidence folders! <br /><br />To draw a final parallel with EYFS, county moderators are just as interested in what a teacher can tell them about a child as the physical evidence they can provide. <br /><br />The processes that our trial has led us into are simple and efficient. There's no duplication or excessive paperwork. There is plenty of professional judgement though. Senior management have commented on how well we know the children, and progress is clear in the data we provide them. They trust us. The trial is rolling out across the school for the summer term. <br /><br /><br /><h3>And finally ... </h3><br />Can I sum up what 'assessment without levels' means to me in a single sentence?...<br /><br /><i>In the past, being perfectly honest, my use of 'teacher assessment' was a fudge to help me through the near impossible task of using APP. I never really developed a feel for where a child was in every subject, or managed to remember what a level 3c in maths meant they could actually do. I knew how many children had to make 2 sub levels progress though! </i><br /><i><br /></i><i>'Teacher assessment' means something very different to me now. Working with such a succinct and measurable curriculum (I know it has its issues!) and being trusted to use my professional judgement has ended up with me ... well, being a professional who can exercise judgement effectively.</i><br /><i><br /></i><i>I can sit down with a child and their parents and explain exactly what the child can already do, and what they need to do in relation to the 'National Standard'. I can show them the key objectives for a subject on a single sheet and demonstrate how their child is progressing. This can only lead to a meaningful and honest discussion. In fact, a formative one. And isn't that the whole point! The DfE themselves describe what we should be doing between the end of key stages as 'formative assessment'.&nbsp;</i><br /><i><br /></i><i>I have no doubt that some teachers have always managed to achieve this, but not me, and I'm sure that 'your child is a level 3c' was never a great place to start from. </i><br /><br />So no, I can't sum it up in a single sentence. I think that reflects the size of change that this is. It also means that running your own trial in advance of September would probably be a smart move.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://edgazette.co.uk/" imageanchor="1"><img alt="The Edgazette" border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wqzOtNsRUXQ/V_i93BghFXI/AAAAAAAAA-Q/5yTCTC9sSWY5jQMT0PP5HUJ3VloU9tNJACLcB/s1600/Edg%2BAd.gif" style="padding: 0px;" title="The Edgazette" /></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</script></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/boHMf/~4/N7kh8DV8dqc" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Chris Dunnhttps://plus.google.com/107296632684438898503noreply@blogger.com2http://mr-shrek.blogspot.com/2015/04/assessment-without-levels-trial.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7483954974146317174.post-43232663284613274722014-09-21T14:33:00.000+01:002016-10-08T10:50:02.707+01:00Next Steps in EYFS...doesn't need to be a cottage industry!I've used a few different methods to create, record and communicate 'Next Steps' in EYFS, both paper based and electronic (using various APP's on an iPad). They have all been hugely time consuming, requiring an awful lot of work to keep them up to date or to create 'snapshots' every term or so. To be honest, the effort put in did not justify the limited impact on learning.<br /><br />I decided there must be a better way to do it, and after trialling 'Next Step Trees' for two terms I very much think there is...<br /><br />I created four 'Next Step Trees' which very simply show what a child can do and what their next steps are. There is one for the Prime Areas, and one each for Number, Reading and Writing. I took the statements from Development Matters/ELG's and re-wrote them using parent friendly language, focussing on those that require teaching input. I've never seen the point in giving a child a purely developmental next step!<br /><br />You could edit these to create trees for other learning areas, but I think four is enough and that for better or worse, they fit with DfE and Ofsted priorities.<br /><br />All you need to update them is a few stickers, and the only writing required is the date. They have saved hours and hours of admin time and proved far more effective than I imagined...<br /><br /><i>Parents/Cares like them, and can view them whenever they drop off or pick up their child.</i><br /><i><br /></i><i>Children love collecting the stickers and enjoy proudly showing new ones to their parents.</i><br /><i><br /></i><i>They generate learning discussions with the children.</i><br /><i><br /></i><i>They form the basis of discussions at parent's evenings.</i><br /><i><br /></i><i>They can be handed on to Year 1 as an assessment record, or can be kept 'live' for those who have not yet reached the ELG's.</i><br /><div><br /></div>I laminate them back to back and keep them in wall pockets for easy access by the children and their parents.<br /><br />Here they are for downloading in Word format. You can edit and add in your logo etc as required...I hope you find them useful!<br /><br /><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B18q4PvrJ91VRTYwTUdUenQ3MUk/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Download Prime Area Tree</a><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-W--Sqmdnr3E/VAsS6dC0oCI/AAAAAAAAAnU/LQgYklsr0Mo/s1600/Prime%2BAreas.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-W--Sqmdnr3E/VAsS6dC0oCI/AAAAAAAAAnU/LQgYklsr0Mo/s1600/Prime%2BAreas.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B18q4PvrJ91VWmRKQzktRF9zdmM/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Download Number Tree</a><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XZJA_4zvCs4/VAsUEOb8yCI/AAAAAAAAAng/6q5wCBwLpME/s1600/Number.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XZJA_4zvCs4/VAsUEOb8yCI/AAAAAAAAAng/6q5wCBwLpME/s1600/Number.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B18q4PvrJ91VS2c5ODdpSENmbTA/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Download Reading Tree</a><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TpXUX8FaoPg/VAsUE1VAc0I/AAAAAAAAAnk/CuNyv3Qtrjs/s1600/Reading.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TpXUX8FaoPg/VAsUE1VAc0I/AAAAAAAAAnk/CuNyv3Qtrjs/s1600/Reading.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B18q4PvrJ91VMWRmZlZ1aXdMMjg/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Download Writing Tree</a><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HwnBFR1HMEM/VAsUFHyY8fI/AAAAAAAAAns/GE_-De_0cDQ/s1600/Writing.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HwnBFR1HMEM/VAsUFHyY8fI/AAAAAAAAAns/GE_-De_0cDQ/s1600/Writing.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://edgazette.co.uk/" imageanchor="1"><img alt="The Edgazette" border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wqzOtNsRUXQ/V_i93BghFXI/AAAAAAAAA-Q/5yTCTC9sSWY5jQMT0PP5HUJ3VloU9tNJACLcB/s1600/Edg%2BAd.gif" style="padding: 0px;" title="The Edgazette" /></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</script></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/boHMf/~4/8lpG2oI7OTY" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Chris Dunnhttps://plus.google.com/107296632684438898503noreply@blogger.com0http://mr-shrek.blogspot.com/2014/09/next-steps-in-eyfs.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7483954974146317174.post-47584953404065050102014-04-26T08:26:00.000+01:002016-10-08T10:56:15.966+01:00Number Progression from EYFS to Year 2 (New Curriculum)Following my post on the new <a href="http://mr-shrek.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/new-primary-maths-curriculum-2014-epic.html" target="_blank">National Curriculum for Maths 2014</a>, I have developed a progression document that ties the number part of the new curriculum in with Development Matters and the Early Learning Goal (ELG). The document is working nicely in my school, with every child from Nursery to Year 2 having their progress measured using it.<br /><br />An added benefit is that awareness and subject knowledge amongst staff (including TA's) has risen greatly, with the next steps for each child becoming obvious. We are also beginning to build a bank of learning resources cross-referenced using the codes in the document.<br /><br />The goal is for any adult to be able to sit down with any child (with their progression document), know exactly what they can already do, see their next steps and have resources readily available to support those next steps. Simple really!<br /><br />The progression is split into 4 strands as follows :-<br /><br /><i>Recognising &amp; Writing Numbers</i><br /><i>Counting</i><br /><i>Value &amp; Calculation</i><br /><i>Language</i><br /><br />This may seem overly complicated at first, but it makes 'learning barriers' transparent, e.g. a child who is not progressing in calculation may actually have a counting issue, or mis-understanding a key piece of maths language may underly a general lack of progression.<br /><br />I have stopped at Year 2 because it represents a key transition point. A child who is a secure in the Year 2 curriculum will have a good understanding of our number system (including place value), and will be able to carry out mental calculations with small numbers. They are then ready to be introduced to written methods...a whole new story!<br /><br />Please please please don't introduce children to formal written methods until they reach this point. Doing so can leave them with an incomplete or poor mental maths ability that may not get fixed...ever. Have you ever tried teaching column addition to a child who still uses their fingers to add 6 and 2?..they're just not ready yet. How many of us are brave enough to stop though...and go back to the basics for a term first? (or even for a year if necessary). Hopefully the document below can help make it easier to judge when children should progress.<br /><br />The document is best printed on a single A3 sheet (portrait)...<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">&nbsp; <iframe height="480px" src="https://docs.google.com/viewer?srcid=0B18q4PvrJ91VZUxJclhXM3R4R0U&amp;pid=explorer&amp;efh=false&amp;a=v&amp;chrome=false&amp;embedded=true" width="625px"></iframe><br /><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://edgazette.co.uk/" imageanchor="1"><img alt="The Edgazette" border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wqzOtNsRUXQ/V_i93BghFXI/AAAAAAAAA-Q/5yTCTC9sSWY5jQMT0PP5HUJ3VloU9tNJACLcB/s1600/Edg%2BAd.gif" style="padding: 0px;" title="The Edgazette" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</script></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/boHMf/~4/HEzjJ1xqG2Q" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Chris Dunnhttps://plus.google.com/107296632684438898503noreply@blogger.com1http://mr-shrek.blogspot.com/2014/04/number-progression-eyfs-to-year-2.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7483954974146317174.post-6210701381220635792014-04-06T10:28:00.003+01:002016-10-08T10:51:03.160+01:00Is your class library a Tesco experience?Our class library is probably similar to most in Early Years and Key Stage 1. It has a range of books...new to old...good to bad...<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4RYwee22-8E/U0AXzY_DioI/AAAAAAAAAlw/_0HgxZSx2oU/s1600/IMG_0731.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4RYwee22-8E/U0AXzY_DioI/AAAAAAAAAlw/_0HgxZSx2oU/s1600/IMG_0731.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>I have been watching the children using the book corner this week. What I saw happening worried me. I noticed that the children discarded the majority of the books they picked up. A few favourites were always taken, but the majority of books ended up on the floor or untouched. These favourites were often carried round like trophies, as just having them seemed to bring pleasure.<br /><br />The behaviour fell into three categories...<br /><br /><i>1/. Not visiting the book corner at all.</i><br /><i><br /></i><i>2/. Hoarding the favourites.&nbsp;</i><br /><i><br /></i><i>3/. Staying in the corner for a few minutes...browsing, but not engaging.</i><br /><br />Category 3 is the one that worried me the most. I viewed them as browsers who weren't really interested in reading. That was until I recognised the look of sad frustration on one boys face when he moved on. I realised that I feel the same when I browse the books in a supermarket...<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-X3BjwdtvqKo/U0EUG49MVvI/AAAAAAAAAmI/Y5AdjyxGKWw/s1600/books.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-X3BjwdtvqKo/U0EUG49MVvI/AAAAAAAAAmI/Y5AdjyxGKWw/s1600/books.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><br /><i>Very little worth reading in my opinion. Mostly discounted 'nearly made it' books that the publishers need to clear stocks of.</i><br /><br />I have a browse most times I visit a supermarket. I know I enjoy reading, yet there's always the nagging feeling that I 'should' be reading. Not being able to find something to read in a supermarket just adds to this nagging feeling. The boy must have felt the same.<br /><br />Sometimes the nagging gets the better of me though, and I dive in! This has lead to the purchase of books that I was never hugely interested in, and never got past the first chapter of...the ones the children discarded on the floor.<br /><br />The above experience leaves me feeling a little despondent about reading, and if I'm honest it makes me feel a bit dim, like I'm not bright enough to enjoy books that others obviously do.<br /><br />Then I thought about the books that I have really enjoyed reading, the ones that stir up feelings and memories when you see the spine on the bookshelf. I could recall buying many of them...a comment from a fellow browser, a recommendation from an assistant, five minutes spent reading the opening pages...<br /><br />It was then that I realised my class library needs to more like a Waterstones than a Tesco. Not bigger, just better. Whether old or new, every book needs to be one of the best. Even an average book is going to risk putting a child off reading, either for that day, or week, or even worse for ever.<br /><br />I then saw my class library as something that was more likely to put children off reading than inspire them to get started...<br /><br /><i>Chuck the average books out!...old and tatty is fine, just as long as it's good.</i><br /><br />We have a copy of The Very Hungry Caterpillar that has tears, mud stains and even pages missing. The children still carry it round, read through it, share it with a friend, and sometimes argue over it. It's tatty because it's good, very good. In fact it's a highly desirable thing to have.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7X05VeY5Oy8/U0AXzejnudI/AAAAAAAAAl8/lHNQLK0VHM0/s1600/IMG_0733.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7X05VeY5Oy8/U0AXzejnudI/AAAAAAAAAl8/lHNQLK0VHM0/s1600/IMG_0733.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />So next time there's no budget for new books, all is not lost. You may do just as well by throwing out the bad and average ones. Just think twice before binning the one that's missing a few pages and patched up with sellotape... <br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://edgazette.co.uk/" imageanchor="1"><img alt="The Edgazette" border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wqzOtNsRUXQ/V_i93BghFXI/AAAAAAAAA-Q/5yTCTC9sSWY5jQMT0PP5HUJ3VloU9tNJACLcB/s1600/Edg%2BAd.gif" style="padding: 0px;" title="The Edgazette" /></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</script></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/boHMf/~4/j9ucnRlhvO4" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Chris Dunnhttps://plus.google.com/107296632684438898503noreply@blogger.com1http://mr-shrek.blogspot.com/2014/04/class-library-tesco-experience.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7483954974146317174.post-58922638712903596492014-03-16T09:22:00.001+00:002016-10-08T10:59:45.811+01:00New Primary Maths Curriculum 2014 - Epic fail or finally coming of age?There's now less than half an academic year left before we're all supposed to be teaching to the new National Curriculum 2014.<br /><br />If you're anything like me, you're part of an academy and have hidden behind the "Well we don't have to implement it." excuse for a while. That's the excuse that followed the "Well it's been so long coming, is it really going to happen?" one.<br /><br />It seems it really is happening, and if you're an academy you're going to need to back up "We've decided not to implement it." with something majorly substantial...like your own custom designed expert curriculum tailored to your own children...not going to happen is it.<br /><br />You may have looked at the IPC (International Primary Curriculum)...I did. &nbsp;The first page of my google search threw up all sorts of scary things..."the many many problems with IPC, no resources available, woefully thin planning, expensive". &nbsp;I dare say it's actually very good, but the amount of work involved in implementing it must be massive.<br /><br />So then, grudgingly...it might be best to have a look at the new national curriculum...<br /><br />I have been working with the maths part of the new curriculum for a while now, and I have to say I really like it. More than that, I think it is going to improve learning and reduce workload. I read it, and I could understand it. My national curriculum joke, "I understand all the words, but when you put them together they make no sense", has been forced into retirement.<br /><br />I shall now explain why I am so positive about it...<br /><br /><h3><b>The new vocabulary...</b></h3><div><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yixKIgS9J04/UxxSTNyeczI/AAAAAAAAAkA/cMT3IidyBPY/s1600/Wordle+new+Vocab.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="185" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yixKIgS9J04/UxxSTNyeczI/AAAAAAAAAkA/cMT3IidyBPY/s1600/Wordle+new+Vocab.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The above words are taken from the introduction section of the document. It is concisely written, there is no waffle, every word counts.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Maths is described as "essential to everyday life" and important for "understanding the world", with children needing the ability to "reason mathematically". All very sensible and practical, but there is a new flavour being introduced...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">We are to instill a "sense of enjoyment and curiosity", and support children in appreciating the "beauty and power of mathematics". &nbsp;I like this. &nbsp;I'm no mathematician, but the idea of exploring the beauty and power of mathematics sounds almost enjoyable, possibly even inspiring. I would have associated phrases like this with a university prospectus.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In fact I googled "the beauty and power of mathematics" on yahoo, and was drawn to a degree level course in America. I took the following bullet points from the synopsis...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><ul style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 20px 2em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><li style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Symmetry (regular solids, tilings, Escher, ruler-and-compass, origami)</span></li><li style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Fibonacci numbers and Golden Ratio</span></li><li style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Optimal design (soap bubble maths, minimal networks)</span></li><li style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Mathematical soul capturing (the maths of juggling and lacing shoes)</span></li><li style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Visualising the 4th dimension</span></li><li style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The shape of space (Mobius bands, Klein bottles, "pacman" spaces)</span></li><li style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Infinity.</span></li></ul><h3><b>Enjoyment, beauty &amp; power...teach maths using&nbsp;pacman?</b></h3><div><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3WJEQ7MevEo/UyVv1Q7sCHI/AAAAAAAAAkw/_7faeE6IKnY/s1600/pacman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3WJEQ7MevEo/UyVv1Q7sCHI/AAAAAAAAAkw/_7faeE6IKnY/s1600/pacman.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I have little idea what the maths involved is, but I do actually want to find out. The idea of teaching maths through origami, the Golden Ratio, soap bubbles, juggling, pacman and infinity sounds so much more interesting than the endless shopping activities, shape walks and 'weighing stuff for a holiday suitcase' that we do. Imagine not having to bribe kids with merits and stickers to fill a page up with calculations, or to measure and weigh every last pencil in the classroom.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The new vocabulary the DfE have provided seems appropriate when imagining these beautiful and powerful activities; sophisticated, inter-connected, pictorial representation, concrete objects, grasp.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This is all beginning to feel rather grown up, in a way that I think children will appreciate. In fact, even the areas of learning are coming of age...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Geometry replaces 'Shape, Space and Measure'.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Statistics replaces 'Data Handling'.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">When Grandpa tries to engage little Lucy in a conversation about what she's learning at school, it's likely to be more productive if he can recognise the subjects. An employer is likely to be impressed when interviewing someone who can remember enjoying 'statistics' when they were at Primary School.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Alongside this new flavour, there is greater clarity regarding the process of teaching maths. The key words seem to be; concept, representation, fluency, concrete, memorise, reason, recall, derive, apply, solve, practise. I see it working like this...</div><h3><b><br /></b></h3><h3><b>The process of teaching maths...</b></h3><div><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tFp87rj5vyo/UyVqBJbKNgI/AAAAAAAAAkg/n1m8PZoG_Dk/s1600/New+Curriculum+Diagram.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="330" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tFp87rj5vyo/UyVqBJbKNgI/AAAAAAAAAkg/n1m8PZoG_Dk/s1600/New+Curriculum+Diagram.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Following the constructivist theory, all outer elements need to be in place and inter-connected in order to embed learning. In accordance with the aims of the new curriculum, the purpose is to be able to reason and solve. The third aim of the new curriculum is to be fluent.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The difference should become apparent in the children's books. We might see photo's recording a few days where children explore and gain an understanding of a new concept. An example would be 'finding the difference', for which children could compare various objects (not the usual inanimate classroom objects...how about real people, real cars, real flowers etc). Their descriptions and comparisons could be steered over time from the more obvious colour, purpose and size, towards the more mathematical 34cm taller and 25g heavier). This could result in the children creating their own pictorial representation of 'difference' that they can go back to when practising and applying.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">There should also be acceptance of regular lessons based on 'I can memorise key number facts' or similar. Nothing recorded in the books, but maybe a cross school ICT based scheme that engages children and measures their progress and recall. There are plenty on the market. Most allow the children to login at home. We can think of it as homework, but the quality of up to date educational websites and Apps means that the line between (home)work and play is blurred for them. As the document says, "An emphasis on practise at an early stage will aid fluency".</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><h3><b>Differentiation &amp; Streaming...</b></h3><div><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The DfE have provided some guidance on the thorny subject of setting, streaming and differentiation. It's perhaps a little subtle, but the key phrases are...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">The expectation is that the majority of pupils will move through the programmes of study at broadly the same pace.</span></i><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i><i>Pupils who grasp concepts rapidly should be challenged through being offered rich and sophisticated problems before any acceleration through new content.</i></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i><i>Those who are not sufficiently fluent with earlier material should consolidate their understanding, including through additional practice, before moving on.&nbsp;</i></span></div><div style="font-size: 11.5px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;">To my mind, this guidance leans towards suggesting maths is taught in mixed ability classes. If teaching in streams or sets, then I think it suggests that content should be lined up to ensure that children can move flexibly and at short notice. With lower ability children in mind, it seems to be a firm rejection of the 'coverage' mantra...at last!</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Note to self: re-title 'extension' worksheets 'rich and sophisticated problems'.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><h3><b>Support materials...</b></h3><div><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The DfE have also been kind enough to include an appendix with "Examples of formal written methods for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division". This looks very much like the sort of 'Maths Progression' document that poor subject co-ordinators feel they should spend hours and hours agreeing and producing.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The new flavour here seems to be simplification and standardisation. Grandpa will recognise all the methods in this appendix! More on this soon...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">For now, here's a link to a fantastically detailed breakdown of the changes by subject and year group (produced by Michael Tidd)...<a href="http://michaelt1979.wordpress.com/2014/01/12/new-curriculum/" target="_blank">New Curriculum? What new curriculum?</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Finally, the DfE website links to some very useful videos produced by the <a href="https://www.ncetm.org.uk/resources/40529" target="_blank">National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Maths (NCETM)</a>. They have 60 short videos giving examples and ideas for implementing the new curriculum and are well worth a look...they even have their own youtube channel...here's an example...</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/HGk8F6rRpPg?list=PLQqF8sn28L9yEyXuHbQNSiQr6sCzqrFrR" width="560"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><h3><b><br /></b></h3><h3><b>Assessment...</b></h3><div><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Oh yes, I almost forgot! After all this positivity, there is one problem. It's a big problem actually, but to be fair, not a problem with the new curriculum itself. There is no assessment framework. The levelling system has gone.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The DfE has kindly left it up to schools to decide what to do. The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) has been looking at the issue since it was announced by Michael Gove in June 2013. So far, they have decided that it would be a good idea if all schools did the same thing, and that until they can work out what that same thing is, we should all use the current levelling system. The levelling system that, at least as far as maths is concerned, is incompatible with the new curriculum. Epic fail</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Switching back to positivity, I have done something about this. It only covers Number in Key Stage 1, but it's a start...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I have produced an 'EYFS/KS1 Number Progression' sheet that can be used to assess children in a similar vein to APP. &nbsp;The sheet can be used to record the progress of children from the pre-school year in Nursery through to the end of Key Stage 1, and to inform their next steps. This is particularly useful for staff in year 1, who have to cope with children working below the level of the national curriculum.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I originally produced the document to clear up the very confusing overlap between Level 1 and the Early Learning Goals/Development Matters. I'm very glad to report that the new curriculum feeds on very nicely from the Early Learning Goals used in EYFS.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Here it is (best printed on A3)...<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B18q4PvrJ91VZUxJclhXM3R4R0U/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">EYFS/KS1 Number Progression</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://edgazette.co.uk/" imageanchor="1"><img alt="The Edgazette" border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wqzOtNsRUXQ/V_i93BghFXI/AAAAAAAAA-Q/5yTCTC9sSWY5jQMT0PP5HUJ3VloU9tNJACLcB/s1600/Edg%2BAd.gif" style="padding: 0px;" title="The Edgazette" /></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</script></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/boHMf/~4/feP68BxwsM4" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Chris Dunnhttps://plus.google.com/107296632684438898503noreply@blogger.com2http://mr-shrek.blogspot.com/2014/03/new-primary-maths-curriculum-2014-epic.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7483954974146317174.post-30992064460045855502014-03-13T21:45:00.000+00:002014-03-13T21:45:26.348+00:00Tiny Bob's Adventurous Counting - My first book!'Tiny Bob's Adventurous Counting' is my first ever book!<br /><br />It's a very interactive book on Apple's iBooks store, and can be used on any iPad or Mac computer...<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KH_dzopOMp8/UuO7OjIppsI/AAAAAAAAAe4/abJLSWO-LWg/s1600/TB+Book+Cover.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KH_dzopOMp8/UuO7OjIppsI/AAAAAAAAAe4/abJLSWO-LWg/s1600/TB+Book+Cover.png" height="200" width="152" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/tiny-bobs-adventurous-counting/id777202804?mt=11&amp;uo=4" style="background-image: url(https://linkmaker.itunes.apple.com/htmlResources/assets/en_us//images/web/linkmaker/badge_ibooks-lrg.svg); background: url(https://linkmaker.itunes.apple.com/htmlResources/assets/en_us//images/web/linkmaker/badge_ibooks-lrg.png) no-repeat; display: inline-block; height: 40px; overflow: hidden; width: 146px;" target="itunes_store"><br /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Here's the book blurb...</i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">First and foremost, this book is a story and an adventure. An adventure involving a plane, a crocodile, a rocket, a dragon, a Princess, maybe some treasure and possibly even a mole…and some other stuff too. Oh, and there’s absolutely NO KISSING…actually that bit might not be true.</span></div><div><div style="min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></span></div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Written by a practising school teacher, Tiny Bob’s Adventurous Counting supports children in developing early maths skills. Animated video clips and interactive activities bring the story to life, and ensure that a child can access the book independently.</span></span><br /><div style="min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></span></div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Here are some things people have said about this book…</span></span><br /><div style="min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></span></div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“He’s always made mountains out of mole hills…he’ll never change.”&nbsp; Tiny Bob’s Mum.</span></span><br /><div style="min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></span></div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“I taught him to count properly…important life skill. Bagged him a Princess in the end, didn’t it!”&nbsp; Tiny Bob’s Dad.</span></span><br /><div style="min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></span></div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“I just don’t believe it. There’s no way she’s a Princess. She hasn’t even got a crown, and I don’t like her trousers.”&nbsp; Tiny Bob’s sister.</span></span><br /><div style="min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></span></div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“We used to count stuff every day…cars, teddies, buttons, balls…sometimes even bad smells…he was good at that…counting I mean.”&nbsp; Mr Mole, Tiny Bob’s first teacher.</span></span><br /><div style="min-height: 14px;"><br /></div><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">An interactive book for children aged 3-7.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Here's an example video animation...</i><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/3KRSbC1Gshk" width="420"></iframe> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>And here are some example screenshots...</i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><br /></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HRJ8C2b09YM/UuO91Bc7gcI/AAAAAAAAAfQ/DWhS-4eSDZo/s1600/IMG_0421.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HRJ8C2b09YM/UuO91Bc7gcI/AAAAAAAAAfQ/DWhS-4eSDZo/s1600/IMG_0421.PNG" height="150" width="200" /></a><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-njJAIfSMYzY/UuO9wUy27DI/AAAAAAAAAfA/UmDxQiz3ueM/s1600/IMG_0422.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-njJAIfSMYzY/UuO9wUy27DI/AAAAAAAAAfA/UmDxQiz3ueM/s1600/IMG_0422.PNG" height="150" width="200" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_irHPveiZQ4/UuO9wz4mjgI/AAAAAAAAAfI/4D2m6Tkj-hY/s1600/IMG_0425.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_irHPveiZQ4/UuO9wz4mjgI/AAAAAAAAAfI/4D2m6Tkj-hY/s1600/IMG_0425.PNG" height="150" width="200" /></a><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9j-SwMZmhig/UuO942HP5uI/AAAAAAAAAfg/QuamWP80lYI/s1600/IMG_0426.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9j-SwMZmhig/UuO942HP5uI/AAAAAAAAAfg/QuamWP80lYI/s1600/IMG_0426.PNG" height="150" width="200" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Yp159mYIsuE/UuO93PC6NVI/AAAAAAAAAfY/_aY9g7WmUPg/s1600/IMG_0428.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Yp159mYIsuE/UuO93PC6NVI/AAAAAAAAAfY/_aY9g7WmUPg/s1600/IMG_0428.PNG" height="150" width="200" /></a><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JYg8KMW0WsE/UuO95X_8gpI/AAAAAAAAAfo/5lpB5DuyxGI/s1600/IMG_0429.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JYg8KMW0WsE/UuO95X_8gpI/AAAAAAAAAfo/5lpB5DuyxGI/s1600/IMG_0429.PNG" height="150" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: left;">Available on Apple's iBooks store...</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/tiny-bobs-adventurous-counting/id777202804?mt=11&amp;uo=4" style="background-image: url(https://linkmaker.itunes.apple.com/htmlResources/assets/en_us//images/web/linkmaker/badge_ibooks-lrg.svg); background: url(https://linkmaker.itunes.apple.com/htmlResources/assets/en_us//images/web/linkmaker/badge_ibooks-lrg.png) no-repeat; display: inline-block; height: 40px; overflow: hidden; width: 146px;" target="itunes_store"><br /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</script></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/boHMf/~4/oS0Rc-XbDEU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Chris Dunnhttps://plus.google.com/107296632684438898503noreply@blogger.com0http://mr-shrek.blogspot.com/2014/02/tmsussex-counting-wheel.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7483954974146317174.post-24998947758306663602014-01-22T17:16:00.000+00:002016-10-08T10:51:32.837+01:00Does a lack of mental maths ‘ability’ stem from poor counting?<div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Constantia, 'Lucida Bright', Lucidabright, 'Lucida Serif', Lucida, 'DejaVu Serif', 'Bitstream Vera Serif', 'Liberation Serif', Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">Poor mental maths ‘ability’ (I say ability, but I suspect it has more to do with education), seems to have become endemic in England. &nbsp;It’s often talked about in the press, and is so prevalent in my generation that people even brag about it. “I’m rubbish at maths, always have been” is not an unusual comment. I’ve never heard a similar brag about not being able to read!</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Constantia, 'Lucida Bright', Lucidabright, 'Lucida Serif', Lucida, 'DejaVu Serif', 'Bitstream Vera Serif', 'Liberation Serif', Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Constantia, 'Lucida Bright', Lucidabright, 'Lucida Serif', Lucida, 'DejaVu Serif', 'Bitstream Vera Serif', 'Liberation Serif', Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">Each generation seems impressed by their predecessors mental abilities, and equally unimpressed by its successors abilities to calculate in their heads. It is socially acceptable to be poor at maths. As a maths specialist with experience from Nursery to Year 6, I believe the underlying cause is poor counting. This belief obviously needs some justification…</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Constantia, 'Lucida Bright', Lucidabright, 'Lucida Serif', Lucida, 'DejaVu Serif', 'Bitstream Vera Serif', 'Liberation Serif', Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rDcL5uA9GZ8/Ut12AIXknaI/AAAAAAAAAeo/Tf2e263SBhM/s1600/counting.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rDcL5uA9GZ8/Ut12AIXknaI/AAAAAAAAAeo/Tf2e263SBhM/s1600/counting.jpg" width="134" /></a></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Constantia, 'Lucida Bright', Lucidabright, 'Lucida Serif', Lucida, 'DejaVu Serif', 'Bitstream Vera Serif', 'Liberation Serif', Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Constantia, 'Lucida Bright', Lucidabright, 'Lucida Serif', Lucida, 'DejaVu Serif', 'Bitstream Vera Serif', 'Liberation Serif', Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;"><span style="color: #444444;">A key transition occurs in maths education at Level 2b. It is the point at which children are assessed to be ‘mentally proficient’ and ready to progress to written methods. Children are targeted with achieving this at the end of Key Stage 1 (Year 2). The fact that this transition occurs at the end of a Key Stage is significant. &nbsp;There’s always pressure to progress, but&nbsp;Key Stage 2 adds it in a new flavour…the need to show written evidence of children’s work.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Constantia, 'Lucida Bright', Lucidabright, 'Lucida Serif', Lucida, 'DejaVu Serif', 'Bitstream Vera Serif', 'Liberation Serif', Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Constantia, 'Lucida Bright', Lucidabright, 'Lucida Serif', Lucida, 'DejaVu Serif', 'Bitstream Vera Serif', 'Liberation Serif', Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">The pressure to get children using written methods as they enter Year 3 is high, whether the children are ‘ready’ or not. &nbsp;The problem is exacerbated by there being a relatively low flow of teachers between Key Stage 1 and 2, leading to a lack of understanding as to how key the Level 2b transition point is. In fact the Key Stages often exist in separate schools!</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Constantia, 'Lucida Bright', Lucidabright, 'Lucida Serif', Lucida, 'DejaVu Serif', 'Bitstream Vera Serif', 'Liberation Serif', Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Constantia, 'Lucida Bright', Lucidabright, 'Lucida Serif', Lucida, 'DejaVu Serif', 'Bitstream Vera Serif', 'Liberation Serif', Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">You can spot the children affected by this issue. They’re the ones who add 7 and 3 on their fingers when using column addition to add 27 and 13, or when given a choice, solve 12+8 by counting. They exist all the way up to Year 6 and no doubt beyond. They may be able to use written methods as a process, but will have very little idea whether the answer they arrive at is sensible or not.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Constantia, 'Lucida Bright', Lucidabright, 'Lucida Serif', Lucida, 'DejaVu Serif', 'Bitstream Vera Serif', 'Liberation Serif', Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Constantia, 'Lucida Bright', Lucidabright, 'Lucida Serif', Lucida, 'DejaVu Serif', 'Bitstream Vera Serif', 'Liberation Serif', Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">In the year I spent as a Numbers Count specialist I got to work with these children…the ones who get ‘stuck’ below Level 3. You will also see these symptoms in some children throughout Level 3, and on into Level 4. These are the children who manage to use process and method to bypass their lack of skill in mental calculation (I was, and to some extent still am, one of these children!) It is useful to draw an analogy between using written methods and Sat Nav…</div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pYD_F5ga0dQ/Ut1ycWtKUWI/AAAAAAAAAec/jaWfCSszYV4/s1600/satnav.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="144" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pYD_F5ga0dQ/Ut1ycWtKUWI/AAAAAAAAAec/jaWfCSszYV4/s1600/satnav.jpg" width="200" /></a>&nbsp; &nbsp;versus<b>&nbsp;</b>&nbsp; &nbsp; <a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TJp8BhkPK1E/Ut1ycrpzDYI/AAAAAAAAAeY/qfuVY_w1VYo/s1600/map.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="115" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TJp8BhkPK1E/Ut1ycrpzDYI/AAAAAAAAAeY/qfuVY_w1VYo/s1600/map.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Constantia, 'Lucida Bright', Lucidabright, 'Lucida Serif', Lucida, 'DejaVu Serif', 'Bitstream Vera Serif', 'Liberation Serif', Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;"><span style="color: #444444;">They both work extremely well and are very efficient. The problem comes when they fail. A broken Sat Nav, or one giving incorrect instructions, can leave you stranded in unfamiliar territory. With no map or map reading skills you really are stuck. Similarly, written calculation methods rely on perfect operation and are prone to errors when aligning columns and placing decimal points etc. If the user has no mental estimate of the answer they are striving for they can stray considerably from the correct route, and more importantly, fail to recognise whether they have arrived at their destination at all!</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Constantia, 'Lucida Bright', Lucidabright, 'Lucida Serif', Lucida, 'DejaVu Serif', 'Bitstream Vera Serif', 'Liberation Serif', Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Constantia, 'Lucida Bright', Lucidabright, 'Lucida Serif', Lucida, 'DejaVu Serif', 'Bitstream Vera Serif', 'Liberation Serif', Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">There has been much toing and froing in the press between Michael Gove and others concerning the balance between understanding concepts, learning facts and using methods. Concepts are fundamental in maths, and the learning (by rote!) of number facts and times tables can accelerate children’s development immensely. The concepts have to be firmly in place first though! &nbsp;However, the use of methods is arguably less important. Given the time, opportunity and motivation, young children who have good mental calculation skills can devise their own written methods. They will be very similar to established methods, differing only in layout, but they can still invent them. This is the constructavist approach to learning…well worth a google search if you’re not familiar with it.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Constantia, 'Lucida Bright', Lucidabright, 'Lucida Serif', Lucida, 'DejaVu Serif', 'Bitstream Vera Serif', 'Liberation Serif', Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Constantia, 'Lucida Bright', Lucidabright, 'Lucida Serif', Lucida, 'DejaVu Serif', 'Bitstream Vera Serif', 'Liberation Serif', Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">The children I have worked with who were ‘stuck’ below Level 3 had very ‘bumpy profiles’. Their level of understanding and skill varied greatly across the four basic number operations, place value, language, and problem solving. However, they all had one thing in common…they all had problems counting.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Constantia, 'Lucida Bright', Lucidabright, 'Lucida Serif', Lucida, 'DejaVu Serif', 'Bitstream Vera Serif', 'Liberation Serif', Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Constantia, 'Lucida Bright', Lucidabright, 'Lucida Serif', Lucida, 'DejaVu Serif', 'Bitstream Vera Serif', 'Liberation Serif', Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">The sorts of issues these children have are as follows :-</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Constantia, 'Lucida Bright', Lucidabright, 'Lucida Serif', Lucida, 'DejaVu Serif', 'Bitstream Vera Serif', 'Liberation Serif', Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Constantia, 'Lucida Bright', Lucidabright, 'Lucida Serif', Lucida, 'DejaVu Serif', 'Bitstream Vera Serif', 'Liberation Serif', Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;"><em>Errors counting between 10 to 20….teen/ty confusion…e.g. twelve, thirteen, forty, fifty.</em></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Constantia, 'Lucida Bright', Lucidabright, 'Lucida Serif', Lucida, 'DejaVu Serif', 'Bitstream Vera Serif', 'Liberation Serif', Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;"><em>Not being able to count between given numbers (e.g. count from 4 to 9) without starting from 1.</em></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Constantia, 'Lucida Bright', Lucidabright, 'Lucida Serif', Lucida, 'DejaVu Serif', 'Bitstream Vera Serif', 'Liberation Serif', Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;"><em>Not being able to count backwards, particularly between given numbers, e.g. 29 to 23.</em></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Constantia, 'Lucida Bright', Lucidabright, 'Lucida Serif', Lucida, 'DejaVu Serif', 'Bitstream Vera Serif', 'Liberation Serif', Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;"><em>Getting stuck at tens boundaries, e.g. 27, 28, 29..err…50?</em></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Constantia, 'Lucida Bright', Lucidabright, 'Lucida Serif', Lucida, 'DejaVu Serif', 'Bitstream Vera Serif', 'Liberation Serif', Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;"><em>Not being able to recognise patterns e.g. 100, 90, 80…..? &nbsp;75, 65, 55….?</em></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Constantia, 'Lucida Bright', Lucidabright, 'Lucida Serif', Lucida, 'DejaVu Serif', 'Bitstream Vera Serif', 'Liberation Serif', Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">If you aren’t able to operate with numbers at this level, are you ready for written methods?</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Constantia, 'Lucida Bright', Lucidabright, 'Lucida Serif', Lucida, 'DejaVu Serif', 'Bitstream Vera Serif', 'Liberation Serif', Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Constantia, 'Lucida Bright', Lucidabright, 'Lucida Serif', Lucida, 'DejaVu Serif', 'Bitstream Vera Serif', 'Liberation Serif', Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">To get an insight into how these children feel, consider the following…</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Constantia, 'Lucida Bright', Lucidabright, 'Lucida Serif', Lucida, 'DejaVu Serif', 'Bitstream Vera Serif', 'Liberation Serif', Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;"><em><br /></em></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Constantia, 'Lucida Bright', Lucidabright, 'Lucida Serif', Lucida, 'DejaVu Serif', 'Bitstream Vera Serif', 'Liberation Serif', Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;"><em>First, let’s replace numbers with letters, e.g A=1, B=2, C=3, D=4…etc</em></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Constantia, 'Lucida Bright', Lucidabright, 'Lucida Serif', Lucida, 'DejaVu Serif', 'Bitstream Vera Serif', 'Liberation Serif', Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;"><em>Now we can all count from A to Z…we’ve practised that many times!</em></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Constantia, 'Lucida Bright', Lucidabright, 'Lucida Serif', Lucida, 'DejaVu Serif', 'Bitstream Vera Serif', 'Liberation Serif', Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;"><em>Can you count from F to M?…did you go back to A first, or were you able to start from F?</em></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Constantia, 'Lucida Bright', Lucidabright, 'Lucida Serif', Lucida, 'DejaVu Serif', 'Bitstream Vera Serif', 'Liberation Serif', Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;"><em>How about counting backwards from S to L?…personally, I would have to write it down.</em></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Constantia, 'Lucida Bright', Lucidabright, 'Lucida Serif', Lucida, 'DejaVu Serif', 'Bitstream Vera Serif', 'Liberation Serif', Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;"><em>What’s the answer to B + C = ?…didn’t just know it? Could work it out easily enough though?</em></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Constantia, 'Lucida Bright', Lucidabright, 'Lucida Serif', Lucida, 'DejaVu Serif', 'Bitstream Vera Serif', 'Liberation Serif', Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">Ok then, how about Q + L – G = ?, or even D x G = ?</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Constantia, 'Lucida Bright', Lucidabright, 'Lucida Serif', Lucida, 'DejaVu Serif', 'Bitstream Vera Serif', 'Liberation Serif', Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Constantia, 'Lucida Bright', Lucidabright, 'Lucida Serif', Lucida, 'DejaVu Serif', 'Bitstream Vera Serif', 'Liberation Serif', Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">How much time and practise would you need before you were fluent enough to answer these questions within a second or 2?</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Constantia, 'Lucida Bright', Lucidabright, 'Lucida Serif', Lucida, 'DejaVu Serif', 'Bitstream Vera Serif', 'Liberation Serif', Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Constantia, 'Lucida Bright', Lucidabright, 'Lucida Serif', Lucida, 'DejaVu Serif', 'Bitstream Vera Serif', 'Liberation Serif', Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">So when you see that child adding 7 and 3 on their fingers…what do they need to help them progress? I hope it’s now easy to see how children can get to Year 6 and beyond without progressing to Level 3, and also how children at Level 3 and 4 can struggle with mental calculations.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Constantia, 'Lucida Bright', Lucidabright, 'Lucida Serif', Lucida, 'DejaVu Serif', 'Bitstream Vera Serif', 'Liberation Serif', Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Constantia, 'Lucida Bright', Lucidabright, 'Lucida Serif', Lucida, 'DejaVu Serif', 'Bitstream Vera Serif', 'Liberation Serif', Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">There’s no ‘quick fix’ to get these children back on track…it really is a case of going back to basics and practising…it can be fun if plenty of concrete resources and ‘real life’ scenarios are used. Having said that, I have come across one resource that works very effectively indeed…the ‘Counting Wheel’.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Constantia, 'Lucida Bright', Lucidabright, 'Lucida Serif', Lucida, 'DejaVu Serif', 'Bitstream Vera Serif', 'Liberation Serif', Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-G1zpq-DqK6M/Ur_vbUjttwI/AAAAAAAAAZ4/pv2y3O1YFiE/s1600/Counting+Wheel.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-G1zpq-DqK6M/Ur_vbUjttwI/AAAAAAAAAZ4/pv2y3O1YFiE/s1600/Counting+Wheel.png" width="200" /></a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ws4z7c2RMOc/TyPWNNTRz0I/AAAAAAAAAQo/eymXPeptnBw/s1600/IMG_0321.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ws4z7c2RMOc/TyPWNNTRz0I/AAAAAAAAAQo/eymXPeptnBw/s1600/IMG_0321.jpg" width="193" /></a></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Constantia, 'Lucida Bright', Lucidabright, 'Lucida Serif', Lucida, 'DejaVu Serif', 'Bitstream Vera Serif', 'Liberation Serif', Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Constantia, 'Lucida Bright', Lucidabright, 'Lucida Serif', Lucida, 'DejaVu Serif', 'Bitstream Vera Serif', 'Liberation Serif', Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;"><span style="color: #444444;">My blog post&nbsp;<a href="http://mr-shrek.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/counting-guide-for-eyfsks1.html" target="_blank">'Counting Guide for EYFS/KS1'</a>&nbsp;explains how to use the wheel, along with downloadable resources.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Constantia, 'Lucida Bright', Lucidabright, 'Lucida Serif', Lucida, 'DejaVu Serif', 'Bitstream Vera Serif', 'Liberation Serif', Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Constantia, 'Lucida Bright', Lucidabright, 'Lucida Serif', Lucida, 'DejaVu Serif', 'Bitstream Vera Serif', 'Liberation Serif', Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;"><span style="color: #444444;">My post&nbsp;<a href="http://mr-shrek.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/counting-to-100-and-understanding-place.html" target="_blank">'Counting to 100 and understanding place value'</a>&nbsp;explains how Numicon can be used to the same effect.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Constantia, 'Lucida Bright', Lucidabright, 'Lucida Serif', Lucida, 'DejaVu Serif', 'Bitstream Vera Serif', 'Liberation Serif', Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://edgazette.co.uk/" imageanchor="1"><img alt="The Edgazette" border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wqzOtNsRUXQ/V_i93BghFXI/AAAAAAAAA-Q/5yTCTC9sSWY5jQMT0PP5HUJ3VloU9tNJACLcB/s1600/Edg%2BAd.gif" style="padding: 0px;" title="The Edgazette" /></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</script></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/boHMf/~4/A3d0fjPc00g" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Chris Dunnhttps://plus.google.com/107296632684438898503noreply@blogger.com0http://mr-shrek.blogspot.com/2014/01/does-lack-of-mental-maths-ability-stem.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7483954974146317174.post-54105481779761112362014-01-09T19:22:00.003+00:002016-10-08T10:53:58.265+01:00Making 'Dough Disco' Count in EYFSI recently came across Shonette Bason's rather wacky 'Dough Disco' idea for developing fine motor skills. It took me a while to pluck up the courage to give it a go...I tried to convince my TA's to lead it, but they told me I had no self-respect left to lose and should therefore do it myself!<br /><br />After a few sessions I started to get the hang of it, and the children enjoy it so much they ask for it on a daily basis. We have a new motto in Nursery...'If your fingers aren't aching, you're not trying hard enough'...not to be taken out of context!<br /><br />If you haven't heard of it before, here's Shonette demonstrating...<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/i-IfzeG1aC4?feature=player_detailpage" width="640"></iframe> <br /><br />We like to start off with a slowish Ed Sheeran song, and then increase the pace and energy to Jessie J's Laserlight (the chorus is a good opportunity to rest the fingers and jump/bounce around for a bit).<br /><br />Initially the children found it difficult to use individual fingers, especially in a given order, but the development of strength and coordination is rapid. I noticed a spin-off benefit in that the children were also getting better at showing numbers using their fingers in our maths sessions.<br /><br />This gave me the idea of adding counting into our dough disco sessions. It has worked very well indeed...adding rhythm and physical activity seems to really help the children with their counting. We now count using numbers up to 50, counting forwards and backwards between given numbers.<br /><br />Counting along to music leads you towards using multiples of 4 in order to keep with the rhythm, e.g. let's count forwards from 4 to 12. This means we're always crossing 10's boundaries, which is a good thing to practise.<br /><br />I'm tempted to try using the tango so we can count between multiples of 3. &nbsp;I could even 'dust off' my 1980's progressive rock album collection, with all it's weird and wonderful time signatures, and practise counting between multiples of 5 or more. &nbsp;See...I've still got some self respect left! <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://edgazette.co.uk/" imageanchor="1"><img alt="The Edgazette" border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wqzOtNsRUXQ/V_i93BghFXI/AAAAAAAAA-Q/5yTCTC9sSWY5jQMT0PP5HUJ3VloU9tNJACLcB/s1600/Edg%2BAd.gif" style="padding: 0px;" title="The Edgazette" /></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</script></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/boHMf/~4/dsmVKEVTZNU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Chris Dunnhttps://plus.google.com/107296632684438898503noreply@blogger.com0http://mr-shrek.blogspot.com/2014/01/making-dough-disco-count-in-eyfs.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7483954974146317174.post-52731788874765204572013-12-29T09:33:00.002+00:002016-10-08T10:58:45.777+01:00Counting Guide for EYFS/KS1As promised is my previous post on <a href="http://mr-shrek.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/number-progression-from-eyfs-to-level-2.html" target="_blank">number progression</a>, I am posting the guide to counting.<br /><br />The key part is the counting wheel...<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-G1zpq-DqK6M/Ur_vbUjttwI/AAAAAAAAAZ4/pv2y3O1YFiE/s1600/Counting%2BWheel.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-G1zpq-DqK6M/Ur_vbUjttwI/AAAAAAAAAZ4/pv2y3O1YFiE/s1600/Counting%2BWheel.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">The counting wheel also works really well using Numicon, as discussed in my previous post entitled&nbsp;</span><a href="http://mr-shrek.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/counting-to-100-and-understanding-place.html" style="text-align: left;">Counting to 100 and understanding place value</a><span style="text-align: left;">.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Here is the guide...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe height="670px" src="https://docs.google.com/viewer?srcid=0B18q4PvrJ91VWElsVkJxLUhOQ0E&amp;pid=explorer&amp;efh=false&amp;a=v&amp;chrome=false&amp;embedded=true" width="480px"></iframe></div><br />I thought it would also be useful to share a powerpoint file containing the number plates for printing...<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe height="370px" src="https://docs.google.com/viewer?srcid=0B18q4PvrJ91VVUVZOGdCaHlxTzg&amp;pid=explorer&amp;efh=false&amp;a=v&amp;chrome=false&amp;embedded=true" width="480px"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><br />Please do let me know if you have any questions etc. <br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://edgazette.co.uk/" imageanchor="1"><img alt="The Edgazette" border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wqzOtNsRUXQ/V_i93BghFXI/AAAAAAAAA-Q/5yTCTC9sSWY5jQMT0PP5HUJ3VloU9tNJACLcB/s1600/Edg%2BAd.gif" style="padding: 0px;" title="The Edgazette" /></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</script></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/boHMf/~4/oRBCMPXQNkY" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Chris Dunnhttps://plus.google.com/107296632684438898503noreply@blogger.com3http://mr-shrek.blogspot.com/2013/12/counting-guide-for-eyfsks1.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7483954974146317174.post-29946725755951818532013-06-17T16:22:00.000+01:002016-10-08T11:00:22.512+01:00EYFS - Using tablets to record observationsI presented to an e-learning conference today, sharing my experience of using mini-iPads to record observations. If this is something you are interested in, you may find the following slides useful...<br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PDB6mcZUn_A/Ub8oE-Uh85I/AAAAAAAAAXA/XsnbxVnLNZg/s1600/Slide1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PDB6mcZUn_A/Ub8oE-Uh85I/AAAAAAAAAXA/XsnbxVnLNZg/s400/Slide1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OUErFPVLvm8/Ub8oMM4i__I/AAAAAAAAAXQ/gQMvWuvamvw/s1600/Slide2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OUErFPVLvm8/Ub8oMM4i__I/AAAAAAAAAXQ/gQMvWuvamvw/s400/Slide2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-chLgTOOzFQ8/Ub8oFcUzlUI/AAAAAAAAAXE/2K_thLnKF2w/s1600/Slide3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-chLgTOOzFQ8/Ub8oFcUzlUI/AAAAAAAAAXE/2K_thLnKF2w/s400/Slide3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UBacX7r4p4E/Ub8oSDGyewI/AAAAAAAAAXY/5SnX-tF7Ohk/s1600/Slide4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UBacX7r4p4E/Ub8oSDGyewI/AAAAAAAAAXY/5SnX-tF7Ohk/s400/Slide4.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-u9bLDiptlX4/Ub8oUFuxOVI/AAAAAAAAAXg/MPafiorv78g/s1600/Slide5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-u9bLDiptlX4/Ub8oUFuxOVI/AAAAAAAAAXg/MPafiorv78g/s400/Slide5.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dwkldCF-a9I/Ub8ofEuXMiI/AAAAAAAAAXo/YTxEvXgYHDI/s1600/Slide6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dwkldCF-a9I/Ub8ofEuXMiI/AAAAAAAAAXo/YTxEvXgYHDI/s400/Slide6.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ci36TF-uuog/Ub8ogFKTRCI/AAAAAAAAAXw/Ga2DYdB_uUc/s1600/Slide7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ci36TF-uuog/Ub8ogFKTRCI/AAAAAAAAAXw/Ga2DYdB_uUc/s400/Slide7.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-t6DM1-k3qcU/Ub8oiLi15SI/AAAAAAAAAX4/iT_nAcbF8Z8/s1600/Slide8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-t6DM1-k3qcU/Ub8oiLi15SI/AAAAAAAAAX4/iT_nAcbF8Z8/s400/Slide8.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4b4MbYUn3Rk/Ub8omwDjaII/AAAAAAAAAYA/mLOxCkUyMJU/s1600/Slide9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4b4MbYUn3Rk/Ub8omwDjaII/AAAAAAAAAYA/mLOxCkUyMJU/s400/Slide9.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Update : Early Years FSF produce a system called Tapestry...well worth a look...<a href="http://eyfs.info/Tapestry/introduction.php" target="_blank">Link</a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://edgazette.co.uk/" imageanchor="1"><img alt="The Edgazette" border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wqzOtNsRUXQ/V_i93BghFXI/AAAAAAAAA-Q/5yTCTC9sSWY5jQMT0PP5HUJ3VloU9tNJACLcB/s1600/Edg%2BAd.gif" style="padding: 0px;" title="The Edgazette" /></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</script></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/boHMf/~4/cwwwCtu-5sM" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Chris Dunnhttps://plus.google.com/107296632684438898503noreply@blogger.com6http://mr-shrek.blogspot.com/2013/06/eyfs-using-tablets-to-record.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7483954974146317174.post-42073435977497611012013-06-10T19:12:00.001+01:002016-10-08T10:58:19.462+01:00EYFS Role-play: Flight to Africa and Safari (downloadable resources)I participated in the&nbsp;<a class="twitter-hashtag pretty-link js-nav" data-query-source="hashtag_click" dir="ltr" href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23earlyyearsideas&amp;src=hash" style="background-color: white; color: #9d582e; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><s style="background-color: white; color: #c49a81; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none; white-space: pre-wrap;">#</s><b style="background-color: white; color: #9d582e; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none; white-space: pre-wrap;">earlyyearsideas</b></a>&nbsp;forum on twitter last week (every Wednesday from 8-9pm), the theme for which was 'journeys'. Lots of great ideas were shared, so I'd recommend giving it a try.<br /><br />A few people were interested in the 2-day African role play that I used in Nursery (it would work equally well in Year R or even Year 1/2), so I thought I'd give a bit more detail and share the resources that I used...<br /><br /><br /><b>Day 1 - Flight to Africa</b><br /><b><br /></b>We started by making passports and thinking about what we'd need on holiday and on safari. The parents had been pre-warned that the children would need to dress for a safari on the following day.<br /><br />The passports were simply made by folding over sheets of A4 and stapling them together. The children then stuck their own photo's to the front and wrote their names (with support as necessary).<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_-6pZaokMJI/UbYLlQ95eyI/AAAAAAAAAWU/QR6jAFT6eek/s1600/IMG_0446.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_-6pZaokMJI/UbYLlQ95eyI/AAAAAAAAAWU/QR6jAFT6eek/s320/IMG_0446.JPG" width="239" /></a></div><br />Next we made toilet roll binoculars for the safari, and worked out how to make a hide so the animals wouldn't be scared of us. A few old carpet roll tubes and our new den making kit came in handy (obviously we had to take them on the plane with us!)...<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Finally we made sandwiches and packed our snack time milk on the plane...we were role playing airport workers at this stage. Once we had made our aeroplane (chairs lined up in front of the interactive white board), we went back to being passengers and checked in at the airport. My TA dressed up as a flight attendant and checked their passes as they boarded, whilst I donned my Captain's hat and joined in the role play.<br /><br />I showed the following video on the whiteboard, adding a sense of realism for the children. The video has audio as well, so the children could hear the pilot talking to the control tower and the engines revving up...<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JPXUvCgSrhM/UbIt8j4k7SI/AAAAAAAAAVg/uMSukRqZNXk/s1600/Pushback.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="124" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JPXUvCgSrhM/UbIt8j4k7SI/AAAAAAAAAVg/uMSukRqZNXk/s200/Pushback.png" width="200" /></a></div>The adjacent image is a screenshot.<br /><br /><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B18q4PvrJ91VZHdpYklMQUM0YWM/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Click here to download pushback and engine start up video</a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Once everyone had settled into their seats, I showed the safety video. I downloaded Thomson's video from youtube which features children and is very engaging...<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3PdlQpzWctI/UbIv9TImwbI/AAAAAAAAAWE/p4bFTsaWjzs/s1600/Safety+video.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="166" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3PdlQpzWctI/UbIv9TImwbI/AAAAAAAAAWE/p4bFTsaWjzs/s320/Safety+video.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B18q4PvrJ91VV0tHeVM0azJQWU0/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Click here to download safety video</a></div><br /><br />We were now ready for take-off, so it was time to play the next video...<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-S6r44pK5Djk/UbIt-rAsd9I/AAAAAAAAAV0/j4CDQZaOQ3Y/s1600/Takeoff.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="121" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-S6r44pK5Djk/UbIt-rAsd9I/AAAAAAAAAV0/j4CDQZaOQ3Y/s200/Takeoff.png" width="200" /></a><br /><br /><br /><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B18q4PvrJ91VamtyM1JaRWNDRmc/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Click here to download take-off video</a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Now was a good opportunity to listen in to the children's conversations, and support them in developing the role-play.<br /><br />After a while some children became a little restless in their seats, so it was time for the in-flight meal and entertainment. Out came the sandwiches and milk, to be served graciously by my TA. I took care of the in-flight entertainment...an episode of Octonauts on iPlayer. We have never seen such depth in the children's role play, and even had to convince one or two children that it was safe to leave their seats and walk across the classroom to the toilet.<br /><br />I brought up google earth on the whiteboard and showed the route we were flying before asking everyone to return to their seats for landing...time for the final video...<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VfnI-0jzNus/UbIt9BRx4CI/AAAAAAAAAVo/YYo4VT9i1bs/s1600/Landing+1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="125" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VfnI-0jzNus/UbIt9BRx4CI/AAAAAAAAAVo/YYo4VT9i1bs/s200/Landing+1.png" width="200" /></a><br /><br /><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B18q4PvrJ91VdWN2MGRWWVlOOU0/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Click here to download landing video</a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Day 1 ended as we left the aircraft and found our hotels...went home!<br /><br /><br /><b>Day 2 - Safari</b><br /><b><br /></b>Up early for the safari. The children came in dressed appropriately and off we went. A few helped build the carpet tube hide, whilst others prepared their binoculars and gathered pencils and passport books in preparation for recording what they might see.<br /><br />Everything was ready now. Some children occupied the hide, and others crept around silently with binoculars at the ready. The only noise was that of the savannah...<br /><br />I edited the following soundtrack myself, including an elephant, lion, monkey, rattle snake and tiger...<br /><br /><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B18q4PvrJ91VNi1WX1Bzclh1SDQ/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Click here to download savannah soundtrack</a><br /><br />The powerpoint file below contains pictures of the above animals that can be printed and displayed for the safari...<br /><br /><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B18q4PvrJ91VZ2tvZWhQdlRYZ1U/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Click here to download African animals.ppt</a><br /><br /><br />We gathered in and around the hide for our snack, and set about recording the animals we had seen.<br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YKoirqnHRt4/UbYMtu2zNyI/AAAAAAAAAWs/BLces4H1jLE/s1600/IMG_0448.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YKoirqnHRt4/UbYMtu2zNyI/AAAAAAAAAWs/BLces4H1jLE/s320/IMG_0448.JPG" width="320" /></a><br />There is a clear opportunity to extend this activity into writing for Year R/1.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Day 2 ended, and the children went home full of stories and souvenir binoculars and passports. The feedback from parents was excellent, so we snatched the opportunity to collect some home observations the following morning.<br /><br /><br /><b>Follow up activity</b><br /><br />Over the next few days we used the following African animal templates to make collages with sand, twigs and paint...<br /><br /><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B18q4PvrJ91VZlJQTGQtdW92Mnc/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Click here to download African animal outlines.ppt</a><br /><br /><br />It was then time for the adults to take a back seat, observe, intervene and collect evidence of the children's learning...it was a joy.<br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://edgazette.co.uk/" imageanchor="1"><img alt="The Edgazette" border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wqzOtNsRUXQ/V_i93BghFXI/AAAAAAAAA-Q/5yTCTC9sSWY5jQMT0PP5HUJ3VloU9tNJACLcB/s1600/Edg%2BAd.gif" style="padding: 0px;" title="The Edgazette" /></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</script></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/boHMf/~4/2spxG2wh0Ts" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Chris Dunnhttps://plus.google.com/107296632684438898503noreply@blogger.com0http://mr-shrek.blogspot.com/2013/06/eyfs-role-play-flight-to-africa-and.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7483954974146317174.post-73155981923935905012013-05-29T18:46:00.000+01:002013-05-31T20:18:45.222+01:00Am I being replaced by Siri?<div>I've been using iPads (mini ones) in Nursery for two terms now.</div><br />I like them a lot!<br /><br />My TA's like them as well...to quote just one positive comment...<i>"you can't let the children have their dummies in class, but it doesn't matter anymore because the iPads work better."</i><br /><br /><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7483954974146317174" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7483954974146317174" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a>The children like them best of all...<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0csiBUg4UVQ/Uaj1uJiah4I/AAAAAAAAAU4/ZMRX7OWGZ60/s1600/ipadpic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="154" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0csiBUg4UVQ/Uaj1uJiah4I/AAAAAAAAAU4/ZMRX7OWGZ60/s400/ipadpic.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7483954974146317174" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7483954974146317174" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><br />I've modelled all sorts of educational stuff, but to be honest it's hard work getting anyone to do anything other than play Temple Run on them...even the TA's (I jest...we're actually recording all of our observations and assessments on them...more of this another time).<br /><br />One of the objectives in Development Matters is for children to know that books and computers can be used to retrieve information. This is quite easy to model for the children, and every now and again we have a 'google' session on the interactive whiteboard instead of story time. I follow their suggestions and we see what we can find out.<br /><br />Last week I took delivery of a 'Lightning to VGA' adapter, which means I can connect the iPad to the whiteboard and speakers....playing Temple Run that big is seriously good fun!...anyway, once we got over that I could demonstrate how to search the internet on it. All went very well, and on the spur of the moment I decided to show them Siri....oops!<br /><br />Some had heard Siri at home, but for many it was a new experience. Probably didn't help that my opening question for Siri was <i>"what are you doing tonight?"..."I'm learning some new languages" </i>came the response<i>....</i>bemused laughter all round...<br /><br /><i>Me : How old are you Siri?</i><br /><i><br /></i><i>Siri : I'm not allowed to&nbsp;answer that question</i><br /><i><br /></i>More bemused laughter...<br /><br /><i>Me : What is the worlds tallest mountain?</i><br /><i><br /></i><i>Siri : Let me think about this...</i>laughter, and then up pops a little picture of Everest with some statistics...impressed <i>'wows'</i>, followed by <i>'can I have a go now?'</i><br /><i><br /></i>So, it's time to end the modelling and let the children take over. Following the children's ideas...that's what EYFS is all about!...slight nervousness on my part...had I overdone the humour or was my last question serious enough to keep things on the straight and narrow?<br /><br />I hand the iPad on to a very sensible 4 year old....<br /><br /><i>Boy : Poo</i><br /><i><br /></i><i>Siri : Sorry, I didn't quite catch that?</i><br /><i><br /></i><i>Boy (louder) : Poo</i><br /><i><br /></i><i>Siri (displaying 'who' rather than 'poo' on screen) : Who, indeed?</i><br /><i><br /></i><i>Boy : Big poo</i><br /><i><br /></i><i>Siri : I make you unhappy?</i><br /><i><br /></i>So then, Siri has a sense of humour...<br /><br /><i>Boy : Big poo from my bottom</i><br /><i><br /></i><i>Siri : Let's keep it clean here, OK</i><br /><i><br /></i><i>Boy (looking embarrassed) : I always wipe it</i><br /><i><br /></i><i>Siri : I don't understand 'I always wipe it', but I could search the internet for it?</i><br /><i><br /></i>Whole class (including staff) totally lost it now....uncontrollable laughter and tears...<br /><br />I've always enjoyed playing the class clown and being at the centre of all things humorous, but it seems that Siri, complete with his dry American sitcom delivery, is the new game in town.<br /><br />It's now only a matter of time before the children start asking Siri serious questions, and discover that his knowledge is total, his patience endless, and that he only speaks when spoken to...then I'm finished!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</script></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/boHMf/~4/wWPqZdrKN88" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Chris Dunnhttps://plus.google.com/107296632684438898503noreply@blogger.com0http://mr-shrek.blogspot.com/2013/05/am-i-being-replaced-by-siri.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7483954974146317174.post-40267817332884371542013-05-09T19:26:00.000+01:002016-10-08T10:52:36.330+01:00Racing to understand place value in EYFS<div>Place value is a fundamental concept in our number system, but it tends to fall between the cracks until children reach KS1. In fact many children struggle with it well into KS2. The National Strategies research project - 'Children who get ‘stuck’ at level 2C in mathematics' states place value as a key barrier to children progressing to the all important level 2B. To quote from the report...</div><div><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-indent: 0px;"><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"><i>"Most children were not able to recognise and state that there are 52 objects altogether in a set containing 50 objects that were arranged in 5 groups of tens alongside another 2 individual objects."</i></span><br /><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-indent: 0px;"><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"><i>"In a test question, none of the children working at level 2C could identify that 37 has 3 tens; this compared with 60% of the children working at level 2B."</i></span></div><div><br /></div><div>Neither Development Matters or the EYFS framework makes any mention of place value, so you could justifiably think 'it's not my problem' if this is where you work. However I hope that my previous post on <a href="http://mr-shrek.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/counting-to-100-and-understanding-place.html" target="_blank">counting</a>&nbsp;shows how it can be successfully embedded from Nursery onwards.</div><div><br /></div><div>However, the activity I set up today was never intended to tackle place value...</div><div><br /></div><div>It started off as an attempt to engage a group of boys in number recognition. It's a group of boys that are always together, usually dressed as superheroes, and whose interaction with adults is mainly limited to 'can you put this Batman cloak on for me', 'can you make me another Ben 10 watch' and 'tcheew' (you know, the sound that Spiderman makes when he throws a web at a baddie).&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>They were intrigued when the giant cardboard tube appeared, and no doubt had ideas of their own before I placed it on a slant between the bridge and a table. I sat down at the table with pen, paper, and a box of cars. Batman came up to me and spoke...</div><div><br /></div><div><i>"What are you making?"</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>"I'm not sure yet Batman...what do you think?"</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>"I'm not Batman, you are"</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>"Why do you think I'm Batman?"</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>"Because you say 'Batman here' when you answer the phone from the office"</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>"Oh yeah, I was only joking. You're the real Batman right?"</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>"I am....can I have a car?"</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>"Ok....take one for Robin as well"</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>"Who's Robin?"</i></div><div><br /></div><div>So off he went with the cars. He gave one to his friend and they did the obvious thing....what else would 3 and 4 year old boys do when supplied with some toy cars and a cardboard tube set up on a slant!?</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-r35rtgAOAPE/UYkyI9RAMSI/AAAAAAAAAUU/JKHeBzfkrU4/s1600/Picture+018.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-r35rtgAOAPE/UYkyI9RAMSI/AAAAAAAAAUU/JKHeBzfkrU4/s320/Picture+018.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />After a few goes each the next natural step occurred...</div><div><br /></div><div><i>"Mine went further than yours"</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>"No it didn't"</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div>For me, Early Years teaching is all about intervention. You set up a learning opportunity, let the children lead it, and then intervene at the key moments that can lead them to learn something new.</div><div><br /></div><div>I intervened...</div><div><br /></div><div><i>"Can I draw a number line so you can see which car goes the furthest?"</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>"What's a number line?"</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>"I'll show you"</i><br /><i><br /></i>So now we had the learning opportunity set up...digits in place, and a motivation to use them.</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WCcDxXck_rY/UYkxw2i0zgI/AAAAAAAAAT0/rK98oEL440Y/s1600/Picture+004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WCcDxXck_rY/UYkxw2i0zgI/AAAAAAAAAT0/rK98oEL440Y/s320/Picture+004.jpg" width="239" /></a></div><br /></div><div>Five minutes later there were about 15 children lining up to take part. Some recognised a few digits, some all, and some none. Some of those that knew all took on the role of teaching others (natural referees!), and I sat back and watched. It soon became time to intervene again...<br /><br /><i>"The cars keep falling off the end, we need more numbers!"</i><br /><i><br /></i>It wasn't my idea, this was a 3 year old girl intervening.<br /><br />I brought out another table and extended the number line for them. I added the blue Numicon pieces at the side&nbsp;to represent the tens&nbsp;(with arrows drawn to show which numbers they related to), thereby supporting them in decoding the bigger numbers. They are familiar with counting in tens from our&nbsp;<a href="http://mr-shrek.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/counting-to-100-and-understanding-place.html" target="_blank">counting</a>&nbsp;sessions, and I modelled how to match the Numicon with the tens digit, and then how to add on the units digit (establishing place value). The race was on again...</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iuYShr4GPTE/UYkxyjN6HoI/AAAAAAAAAUE/REFYWNMKPDs/s1600/Picture+010.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iuYShr4GPTE/UYkxyjN6HoI/AAAAAAAAAUE/REFYWNMKPDs/s320/Picture+010.jpg" width="239" /></a></div><br /><br />One boy was very proud that his car had almost reached the end of the number line. I asked him what number it was. He said 77. I was pleased that he had linked a big number with the end of the number line, and started to show him how to use the Numicon to decode 31. He was somewhat ahead of me...<br /><br /><i>"I know that's 31. My car is number 77. That would be 7 Numicons."</i><br /><i><br /></i><i>"Wow, that's very impressive!"</i><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Thk54v_SEIU/UYkxxZIel2I/AAAAAAAAAT8/iJv33dY8z48/s1600/Picture+008.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Thk54v_SEIU/UYkxxZIel2I/AAAAAAAAAT8/iJv33dY8z48/s320/Picture+008.jpg" width="239" /></a></div><br /><br />Using the National Strategies research quoted above, that's a piece of level 2B knowledge that we wouldn't expect to see for another 3 years or so. This is not a child genius (generally working within 40-60 months), and I haven't done anything particularly time consuming or exceptional to support him. However he was presented with the opportunity to piece together his existing knowledge and to 'construct' his own learning. It's served as a reminder to me that there's no harm in planning with 'unrealistically' high expectations in mind!<br /><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://edgazette.co.uk/" imageanchor="1"><img alt="The Edgazette" border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wqzOtNsRUXQ/V_i93BghFXI/AAAAAAAAA-Q/5yTCTC9sSWY5jQMT0PP5HUJ3VloU9tNJACLcB/s1600/Edg%2BAd.gif" style="padding: 0px;" title="The Edgazette" /></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</script></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/boHMf/~4/7RQLT3nrc2A" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Chris Dunnhttps://plus.google.com/107296632684438898503noreply@blogger.com1http://mr-shrek.blogspot.com/2013/05/racing-to-understand-place-value-in-eyfs.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7483954974146317174.post-66909715159921873862013-04-30T22:06:00.000+01:002016-10-08T10:57:39.786+01:00How to use the Revised EYFS Profile...from the horse's mouth!I attended a course today entitled 'Implementing and Moderating the Revised EYFS Profile'...<br /><br />The details of the Revised profile are only just becoming clear, and with deadlines for data submission looming it seemed like a good idea to find out how it's supposed to be done!<br /><br />My expectations for the course were not too high, but it soon became apparent that the man delivering it, Jan Dubiel, is a key player in the Early Years world. He was in fact responsible for delivering the previous EYFS Framework, and was on the approval panel for the revised version. He is the man responsible for coming up with the 80/20 rule for child initiated/teacher led! We were lucky enough to be hearing it from 'the horse's mouth' as it were, and I took the opportunity to get answers to many of the questions we no doubt all have...to be fair, Jan answered most before there was any need to ask.<br /><br />I thought it would be useful to share some of Jan's key points (I won't repeat things that are clearly stated in the DfE documentation)...<br /><br /><b>Evidence &amp; Documentation</b><br />Only record what is significant for that child. Record what you will otherwise forget.<br /><br />Observations should not be carried out on a planned or timetabled basis, we should respond to whatever the children are doing/learning.<br /><br />There is no need to gather 3 pieces of evidence or similar for every learning step (apparently it's a myth that there ever was...Jan would know, as he is the one who wrote it!)<br /><br />There are two types of observations...<br /><br /><i>Instantaneous</i> : Recording the 'wow' moments.<br /><br /><i>Detached (what we might call extended observations) </i>: No need to do these regularly or for every child. Be careful, as they usually won't tell you anything new about the child. They can be useful for the 'invisible' children that might otherwise go unnoticed (the ones that don't grab us by the arm all the time!)<br /><br />The majority of evidence should come from child initiated activities, as this demonstrates that they can apply their learning in a different context to that which they were taught in.<br /><br />It's OK, or even good, to intervene when observing a child in order to extend their learning at a key point where they might otherwise lose interest. &nbsp;It is also OK to move them on and enable them to demonstrate their new skill/knowledge.<br /><br />It is clear that children should only be assessed against the ELG's&nbsp;as 'Emerging', 'Expected', or 'Exceeding'&nbsp;when completing the profile. However, if a child has moved beyond 40-60months before profile time, then they can be assessed as 'working within' the relevant ELG.<br /><br />It is a statutory requirement to prepare children for the ELG's (the implication is that ELG's need to be built into planning from an early stage).<br /><br />The ELG's must not be split up into their constituent sentences. Assessing is about the 'best fit', not ticking off all the parts.<br /><br />The characteristics of learning assessment should be 5-6 sentences in total.<br /><br /><b><br /></b><b>OFSTED &amp; Demonstrating Progress</b><br />Despite the fact that the ELG's are only assessed at the end of Year R, OFSTED require schools to demonstrate the progress that children make. Although Development Matters is non-statutory, OFSTED are largely expecting it to be used as a framework for assessment within schools, particularly to assess children on entry...<br /><br />On entry to Nursery, 3yr olds should be secure in 22-36 months, and be working within 30-50 months.<br /><br />On entry to Year R, children should be secure in 30-50 months, and be working within 40-60 months.<br /><br />Anything less is below age-related expectation.<br /><br />On-entry assessments should focus on the Prime areas, and be completed by October half-term. Don't judge the first two weeks, as this is assessing the children's response to transition.<br /><br />Despite plenty of analysis, no correlation has been found between EYFS data and performance at the end of KS1 or KS2. Therefore, no sensible predictions or targets can be made for children at the end of EYFS.<br /><br />Finally, the pilot for the revised EYFS Profile showed that 41% of children reached a good level of achievement (this low figure is due to raised expectations, particular in literacy and maths). We have been set a target of 75%.......I suspect we'll all be keeping our heads down when the national results are published in October....Gove will no doubt be blaming us for the poor results, but who will the press turn on!?<br /><br /><br />Jan Dubiel is the National Development Manager for Early Excellence. www.earlyexcellence.com<br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://edgazette.co.uk/" imageanchor="1"><img alt="The Edgazette" border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wqzOtNsRUXQ/V_i93BghFXI/AAAAAAAAA-Q/5yTCTC9sSWY5jQMT0PP5HUJ3VloU9tNJACLcB/s1600/Edg%2BAd.gif" style="padding: 0px;" title="The Edgazette" /></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</script></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/boHMf/~4/IMl9QHR0wQs" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Chris Dunnhttps://plus.google.com/107296632684438898503noreply@blogger.com5http://mr-shrek.blogspot.com/2013/04/how-to-use-revised-eyfs-profilefrom.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7483954974146317174.post-48322879272710658142012-11-29T20:23:00.001+00:002012-11-29T20:23:49.385+00:00EYFS - Turning a face slap into a question.A new school year has well and truly started, and my 2 classes of 26 children are settling in nicely...<br /><br />No more tears at drop off...tussles over favourite toys diminishing...friendships developing.<br /><br />Initial assessments done...an Ofsted visit successfully completed.<br /><br />Lots of niggling issues in my head...why hasn't the new EYFS Framework reduced my paperwork?...why am I now doing more assessments than ever?...do I really have to start singing Christmas songs now!<br /><br />But one issue in smacking me in the face at the moment....literally.<br /><br />We have a language issue. Ofsted noted it, and my Development Matters assessments show the children to be an average of 9 months behind. To find out more I tested the children using the BPVS Standardised vocab test, and discovered they are a year behind on average.<br /><br />The problem is clear on an average day in class. Many children use gesture to support communication, and that's a good thing. However, the way children demand attention seems to be getting a little out of hand. Getting your sleeves pulled, your shoulders tapped, and even your feet trodden on is all part of the job. But when they start actually grabbing your chin and turning your head to face them, or even slapping your face with a giggle you know you've got a problem! Basic manners and etiquette can be taught, and we are getting there slowly, but I think this hints at a deeper problem.<br /><br />Keen to look more deeply into the issue and bearing in mind Ofsted's March 2012 report on 'Raising Standards in Literacy' (Which suggests that Nurseries and Primary Reception Classes should develop structured programs to develop communication skills), I set up some workshops...<br /><br />I ran 2 small workshops with family groups of children (from Nursery to Year 6), to see how older siblings help their younger ones learn language. I observed them helping their Nursery siblings to read books, write their names, and during 'small world' play. It's hardly a professional <br />research project, but it revealed two key points :- <br /><br />1/. The family groups with poorer language skills interact mainly with 'directive' language, whereas the family groups with good language skills use questioning effectively.<br /><br />2/. The family groups with good language skills used context and 'real life experience' when interacting. e.g "Do you remember Tilly when we stayed at the farm?...she was a <br />sheep." The other groups don't seem to have a bank of real life experiences to use as context. <br /><br />Hence I'm now focusing on developing questioning skills in Nursery, as this provides a starting point for a learning conversation that many of the children do not have. <br /><br />You could say that my vision of success has moved from...<i>&nbsp;</i><br /><br /><i>A child that knows what all the farm animals are called.</i><br /><br />To...<br /><br /><i>A child that knows they don't know what they are called, but has the confidence and language skills to ask.</i><br /><br />Teaching always involves striking a balance between the passing on of knowledge and the development of skills, but I wonder if we lean a little too far towards passing on knowledge in Early Years? We often complain that parents are introducing their children to school without basic object based vocabulary such as animal names, shapes, or even colours. We should fill in these gaps, but by doing so are we using up valuable time that could be spent dealing with the bigger language problem?<br /><br />And as for giving them more real life experience....you want me to take fifty two 3 and 4 year old's to a farm?...not this term!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</script></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/boHMf/~4/oA4_4uFTuxk" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Chris Dunnhttps://plus.google.com/107296632684438898503noreply@blogger.com4http://mr-shrek.blogspot.com/2012/03/lost-poo.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7483954974146317174.post-56351502390408921022012-02-26T16:48:00.001+00:002012-02-26T16:48:28.692+00:00Getting what you want when you're 3!I recently had an intake of 3 year old's in my class, which has taken us back to basics in some areas...snack time in particular... <br /><br />I'm a great advocate for having a communal snack time in Nursery.&nbsp; It's a good opportunity for the children to learn social and communication skills, and to help develop a sense of community through adult lead discussions.<br /><br />Turn taking is one of the first social skills that comes into focus...<br /><br />No matter how many times you explain how the process works, the temptation is far too great when you're 3.&nbsp; The temptation to get off your seat and go and help yourself to a juicy apple and a carton of milk.&nbsp; My TA's and I have developed a 'zonal defence' system that ensures all the runners are intercepted and returned to their seats with a minimum of fuss.&nbsp; It takes about 3 days for the runners to learn that their attempts are futile.<br /><br />Next they move on to the 'I want one' stage...<br /><br />Despite the routine of milk and fruit being passed around the table, it seems likely when you're 3, that standing up and excitedly shouting ' I want one' will get you an apple more quickly.&nbsp; Of course it doesn't work, and the shouts are ignored by adults until the fruit bowl is within reach.&nbsp; This leads to the introduction of the concepts 'please' and 'thank you'.&nbsp; Some children already use these concepts effectively to get what they want, some get too excited and forget them, and some...well actually one in particular...<br /><br />'I want one'<br /><br />'I'm sure you do. How do you ask for one nicely?'<br /><br />'I want an apple.'<br /><br />'How do we get things that we want?'<br /><br />'I want an apple.&nbsp; Do I have to count.&nbsp; 1.....2.....'<br /><br /><br />Seems modelling behaviour is a very effective strategy!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</script></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/boHMf/~4/2kR_aeHkcD4" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Chris Dunnhttps://plus.google.com/107296632684438898503noreply@blogger.com0http://mr-shrek.blogspot.com/2012/02/getting-what-you-want-when-youre-3.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7483954974146317174.post-81882025299650799792012-02-02T18:21:00.001+00:002012-02-02T18:22:22.265+00:00Getting stuck with stickers in Nursery!There are some things that I just can't seem to nail in Nursery...things that ought to be easy...things that all teachers do without trouble...things that I used to manage perfectly well in Year 3...things like lining the class up in pairs...or calling out the register...and using stickers as rewards.<br /><br />I made my first attempt at using stickers in week one...<br /><br />I decided to use stickers to motivate the class at tidy-up time...didn't put much thought into it...didn't need to did I?...can't be difficult.<br /><br /><i>'Everyone who tidies up will get a sticker!'. </i>The class cheers.<br /><br />No problem, easy. All I had to do now was remember who did a good job. I wrote about ten names on a post-it note. Less than half the class...better than previous days, but not great...that was why I needed to use stickers though!...they'll learn.<br /><br />We all sat down on the carpet once the room was tidy, and I started...<br /><br /><i>'Who thinks they should get a sticker then?'</i><br /><br />Every hand goes up...<i>'Me, me, me, I do' etc.</i><br /><br /><i>'Ok, let's settle down. What did we have to do to get a sticker?'</i><br /><br />Blank faces and silence.<br /><br /><i>'Tidy up'</i>...at last, one child managed to remember. This triggered the memory for a few more, but most looked baffled. Fine, let's carry on...<br /><br /><i>'Ok, well I have a list here of the people who did a great job.&nbsp; They're going to get a sticker!'</i><br /><br />Everybody cheers, and there's plenty of chatter..<i>'Yessss...I'm getting a sticker, i did it, i did it' etc.</i><br /><i> </i><br /><i> </i>Sensing that things were going slightly pear shaped, I added...<br /><br /><i>'Don't worry if you don't get a sticker, because you can get one tomorrow by doing really good tidying up!'</i><br /><br />Sorted...let's get on with it.<br /><i> </i><br /><i> </i>I decide to make a small ceremony out of it. I call out the first name and enthusiastically beckon the child to come forward. She stands up and comes to the front.&nbsp; I call the second name, but the first one wants their sticker right now...they're trying to grab it from the sheet of stickers I'm holding. I decide that's ok and give them the sticker.<br /><br />By this time half the class is standing up and moving towards the front for a sticker. I start regaining control...aided by the second child who is pushing some of the others back saying <i>'it's my turn'</i>.&nbsp; I settle the second child down, and gently remind the class that not everyone will get one, and manage to get them sitting down again. Alarm bells are ringing in my head, but I've come too far to stop now!<br /><br />I call the second child out again and give the sticker. All's going well again. I decide to speed things up whilst I'm ahead, and begin calling out the rest of the names. By the time I get to the fifth name most of the class are on their feet and moving towards the front again. Some are jumping up and down with excitement. Some are coming directly towards me, at speed, with outstretched arms...<br /><br />I recall my first experience of trying to do the register by calling names out...a random mixture of complete silence and yesses from children who may or may not have the name that I called out. The process ended up with a list of ticked names that bore no relation whatsoever to who was actually in the class that day! This was a similar experience, except that this time they had a goal...a shiny gold sticker.<br /><br />Within a few seconds the situation was indeed pear shaped...children grabbing at the sticker sheet...children grabbing at stickers already on someone else's jumper...<i>'it's mine'...'I want one'...'give it back'</i>...and then the tears started...tears because they didn't have a sticker...tears because someone else had their sticker...tears because their sticker didn't stick any more.<br /><br />Some of the tears lasted until hometime, but that wasn't very long. It had seemed a good idea to have the ceremony just before we put our coats on, to leave on a high!...seeing the parents beginning to queue outside led me to reflect that this probably hadn't been a good idea.<br /><br />Nothing stops tears like a sticker. Especially when you're in a hurry. So there we were, everyone had a sticker...some had theirs for tidying up...some had theirs because they'd stolen it from someone else...and some had one to stop them crying. I'd lost track of who and why, but they all went home happy. Stickers had been devalued. I needed a new plan for tidy-up time...<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</script></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/boHMf/~4/J2oZKqtUXTY" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Chris Dunnhttps://plus.google.com/107296632684438898503noreply@blogger.com1http://mr-shrek.blogspot.com/2012/02/getting-stuck-with-stickers-in-nursery.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7483954974146317174.post-27439988092992287242012-01-28T12:58:00.000+00:002016-10-14T17:47:28.217+01:00Counting to 100 and understanding place valueMost children get the hang of counting to ten without too much trouble. It's usually learned through a mixture of nursery rhymes, games, playing with objects and lots of practice!&nbsp; Many parents do a great job in getting their children to this point before they start attending nursery school.<br /><br />However, getting to grips with what happens beyond ten is another matter, and full of pitfalls.&nbsp; Those with good memories can do well when taught by rote, but what about the children who don't learn well using this method? Some children aren't prepared to learn this way, and are looking for a purpose or an understanding before committing valuable memory space.&nbsp; How often do children who don't join in counting by rote sessions get labelled as 'a bit dim', or 'slow at maths'?<br /><br />The vast majority of them are perfectly capable of memorising other things, such as how to get through the levels on their favourite iPod touch game, or the words to a catchy pop song.&nbsp; Even those who learn the number order successfully by rote can be left with misconceptions, or without any real understanding of how our number system works.<br /><br />During the year I spent as an Every Child Counts maths specialist I gained a good understanding of how to help children learn, or even better discover, the number system.&nbsp; These ideas worked very well with Year 2 children who had fallen behind, and are working very well with my current Nursery class...<br /><br />I like to bring place value into consideration as early as possible.&nbsp; The first step here is to know that the units form a repeating, or circular, pattern...<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ws4z7c2RMOc/TyPWNNTRz0I/AAAAAAAAAQo/eymXPeptnBw/s1600/IMG_0321.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ws4z7c2RMOc/TyPWNNTRz0I/AAAAAAAAAQo/eymXPeptnBw/s320/IMG_0321.jpg" width="310" /></a></div>Arranging Numicon in this circular pattern and pointing to each piece in turn when practicing counting, sets-up the starting point for place value nicely.<br /><br />Children might tell you that it's a counting circle, or even ask why it goes from 10 back to 1?&nbsp; These are signs that they are ready to progress.<br /><br />There's no harm in progressing to the next stage now anyway, even if they are not secure in remembering all of the number labels 1-10.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />You simply pick up another 10 and use it to point to the Numicon as you go round the circle again, saying the numbers as you go...eleven, twelve, thirteen...<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3-BBkonoa20/TyPYrUxPB6I/AAAAAAAAARI/WOQUwhp-MZg/s1600/IMG_0322.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="308" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3-BBkonoa20/TyPYrUxPB6I/AAAAAAAAARI/WOQUwhp-MZg/s320/IMG_0322.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eleven...or should it be tenty one?</td></tr></tbody></table>The children will get the hang of the pattern way before they can remember the number names, and that can lead to good things a little later on!<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />However, saying the numbers beyond ten brings us to a major 'road block' in understanding how the number system works...<br /><br />The number labels between 10 and 20 are simply stupid (in my humble opinion).&nbsp; Whoever came up with them is responsible for holding back the maths learning progression of pretty much everyone who speaks English, and for confusing some for life...either that or I've missed something!?<br /><br />If only it was tenty one, tenty two, tenty three, tenty four etc....<br /><br />It's even worse than that though...when listening and speaking, the teen numbers are easily confused with the tens...<br /><br />Thirteen can sound very similar to thirty, and seventeen very similar to seventy etc.<br /><br />Try listening very carefully to children counting in this range...are they really saying all the teen numbers correctly?&nbsp; Teen/ten confusion is very common, and often remains undiagnosed.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-B_uRvC7lRWI/TyPYzO1BjpI/AAAAAAAAARQ/vdgeMn1ke9g/s1600/IMG_0323.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-B_uRvC7lRWI/TyPYzO1BjpI/AAAAAAAAARQ/vdgeMn1ke9g/s320/IMG_0323.JPG" width="239" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eighteen...or should it be tenty eight?<br />Hang on though, did he say eighty?</td></tr></tbody></table>I'm quite happy to gloss over the number names for 11-19 at this stage in favour of establishing the number pattern beyond... <br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_LJ2d-RXJMA/TyPY6w7CBDI/AAAAAAAAARY/rE6kwtQQt9Y/s1600/IMG_0324.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_LJ2d-RXJMA/TyPY6w7CBDI/AAAAAAAAARY/rE6kwtQQt9Y/s320/IMG_0324.JPG" width="239" /></a> Pick up another 10 and we're off round the circle again...<br /><br />Twenty one, twenty two, twenty three...<br /><br />Most children will be joining in with you by now.&nbsp; You've just taught them twenty, and they can see what's happening with the units.<br /><br />There's no need to explain what you're doing.&nbsp; You've created an excellent model of the number system for them, and it's easy to follow and join in.<br /><br />Pick up another ten, and before you know it you've led them all the way to 99!<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />It's a bold statement to make, but the children will have gained a solid grounding in place value before they can count securely to 20, or even 10 in some cases!<br /><br />At this point it's really useful to start counting in tens.&nbsp; Ever noticed a child struggling at a tens boundary?<br /><br />37, 38, 39, err....<br /><br />They understand the repeating units pattern, but need to learn that 40 comes after 39, and 50 after 49 etc.&nbsp; It can seem really odd focusing on counting in tens when you've only just introduced the idea of 11, but once a child has that grounding in place value it really does help.&nbsp; The children can see the point in learning the tens when you use the circular model, and of course you're leading them towards 100 and beyond!<br /><br />It's still going to take lots of practice before all the children are secure, but this method pays dividends beyond.&nbsp; Remember to practice with and without Numicon, as some children can become reliant on seeing the circular model when counting (a Numdrum is another excellent resource to use).<br /><br />Oh yes, and now you can go back and help them learn 11-19 by rote...they'll probably tell you that the number names are stupid though!&nbsp; To help iron out any teen/ty confusion you can put pictures of tea cups (as in tea/ty) next to the tens on a number line, and pictures of teenagers next to the teen numbers.<br /><br />Finally, next time you hear someone from Key Stage 2 in the staffroom complaining that their children 'just don't get place value'...<br /><br />I'd like you to remember tenty one, tenty two, tenty three...<br /><br /><a href="http://mr-shrek.blogspot.com/2015/06/counting-wheel-demonstration.html" target="_blank">Click here</a>&nbsp;for a video demonstration of the counting wheel.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; 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</script></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/boHMf/~4/tBdwYDHuzWI" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Chris Dunnhttps://plus.google.com/107296632684438898503noreply@blogger.com5http://mr-shrek.blogspot.com/2012/01/counting-to-100-and-understanding-place.html